Old Scars and Future Hearts
by AnotherGirlWithAStory
Summary: It was all because of that stupid diary Draco had found when he went his mother to visit 12 Grimmauld Place. If he hadn't started reading it then he wouldn't know about this Padfoot and he definitely wouldn't be questioning everything he had been taught since he was old enough to listen. He definitely wouldn't be standing outside of Harry Potter's house. That damn diary.
1. Sirius Orion Black

**Title** : Old Scars and Future Hearts

 **Challenge** : Take one good/ evil character and change their affiliations. I chose Draco Malfoy who can argued to be neither truly evil or truly good but I mostly he's evil. So, I'm going to change that in this multi-chapter fic.

 **Word Count** : 2, 825

 **Chapter one:** Sirius Orion Black

* * *

It was all because of that stupid diary Draco had found when he went his mother to visit 12 Grimmauld Place. If he hadn't started reading it then he wouldn't know about this _Padfoot_ and he definitely wouldn't be questioning everything he had been taught since he was old enough to listen.

It was during the beginning of the summer and although Draco had yet to admit it he was bored out of his mind. His father sat on the other end of the table eating eggs the way he always did. By separating the yolk with the white and then putting them on two different pieces of toast. His mother barely touched her food – the few vegetables and fruits she had gathered on a tiny plate – and spent most of the time looking at Lucius.

"I was thinking about going to 12 Grimmauld Place."

Lucius glanced at her. "That's fine dear." He glanced at his son. "Take Draco with you."

The thirteen-year-old didn't argue as most would have despite the fact that he could come up with several things he could do that would be more fun than walking around some old house he had never set foot in before. So, he went with his mother and while she huffed and expressed her disappointment about the shape of the house Draco began looking around. That's how he eventually found himself inside an old room that looked far more untouched than the rest of the house. It was when he sat down on the bed that he found the book. It was leather-bound and smelled like a mixture of tobacco and dust and it had an inscription on the front.

 _S.O.B_

That's all he had the time to read before his mother called for him saying it was time to leave. It wasn't until later that evening that he was able to read more. Draco didn't know what he expected it to be. He wasn't surprised to find out that it was as diary. Based on the writing it was obvious that it was written by a young person. The writing was uneven and messy on most places; making it hard to read. He was going to read just one or two paragraphs as Draco doubted very much that someone younger than him had something intelligent and relatable to say. But he had been wrong and although he wanted to finish reading the book Draco had to admit defeat when the clock told him it was nearing four in the morning.

S.O.B took over his mind. If Draco wasn't reading the book, he was thinking about what he had read or thinking about when he was going to be able to read more. He had been wrong, oh so very wrong, when he thought that someone younger than him wasn't going to be able to write something relatable.

Even before he was eleven years old this kid, whoever he was, had thoughts that never appeared in Draco's own mind despite the fact that he was much older. S.O.B or Padfoot as he called himself in the later entries questioned everything his family taught him about being a pureblood. At first, he confided in the diary and remained quiet – or so the entries said – but eventually he began voicing his thoughts. It wasn't popular. Some of the entries the boy wrote after he began rebelling against his parents had Draco hold his breath. It wasn't worse than he thought it would be. It was in fact just what he expected happened to people who questioned their parents' pureblood-politics. But there was something about reading it. Because despite the fact this happened long before Draco was alive he still felt that he cared about this boy whoever he was. And he was sowing a seed of doubt in Draco's mind.

Draco realised that early in the summer when he was standing amongst his so-called friends at one of his parents many parties. He was only listening to the conversation with half an ear while watching the people strategically move around the room when he thought about a paragraph from the diary.

 _It's hard not to see the humour once you start really seeing what goes on. There's a purpose behind every step taken. The glances are more than just glances. Even the children serve a purpose for being there. My little brother and I are here to show that the Black bloodline is safe. My cousins are here to show the other pureblood families that they are available for marriage. They are walking tickets into their honourable bloodline. People are trying so hard to show what they have, what they can offer and what they want from others in return. They are doing business with lives and it doesn't bother them. Most people would claim that it's horrible. But I stick to my earlier statement; I find it amusing._

Draco saw what the boy had written. He saw it all. And he agreed. It was hilarious to say the least. His parents were eying the Greengrass girls as if they were objects rather than living human beings. The only time he had seen his parents look like that was when they were looking at properties. It was sad. And so, amusing.

"What are you laughing about?" Blaise asked.

Draco shrugged. "Nothing."

It was also that paragraph that made him realise whose diary he was reading.

Sirius Orion Black – S.O.B – was his mother's cousin. He had been disowned at some point – Narcissa wasn't sure exactly how old he had been – but it had been quite the scandal. Just like Sirius life overall. At least that's what Narcissa claimed and Draco seemed to have gotten the same idea up until finding the diary. But then again everything Draco had heard of the man to gather an impression of who he was came from Narcissa and Lucius and with a new seed growing in his mind he was quickly questioning the information they had provided him with.

Maybe that's why he – towards the end of the summer – lied to his parents and went to the one place he never thought he'd go. He argued with himself all the way there but could for his life not convince himself to turn around and go back home. He had finished the diary that same night. The last entrance was short and though Draco couldn't pinpoint what it was he was sure that something was different. It merely said that he was leaving. He was going to the Potter's more specifically his best friend, and true brother as the diary said, James Potter.

That's why Draco found himself in the most boring looking neighbourhood in all of Britain. He frowned at the tiny houses and ignored the looks of curiosity from the people peeping up behind their bushes or through the windows. His hair had turned curly from the heat and against better judgement his wand was placed in his back pocket with the diary. He didn't think the walk took that long but then again, the thoughts circulating his head as per usual made him lose track of time. He had looked up where Harry had lived beforehand – he wasn't stupid – but when he saw the house it felt as if he could almost have guessed. Whether that was true or not was hard to say.

The house looked as boring as every other house on the street. Draco looked up towards the windows on the second floor and thought he saw a head of black hair but told himself he was merely imagining things. He knocked on the door and took a step back. _Here we go_.

"Who are you?" A fat man with a moustache that took up most of his face asked and with every word Draco felt a tiny amount of spit hit his face. Had Draco not grown up with the likes of Lucius Malfoy maybe the sheer size of this man would have intimidated him to the point where he would have questioned his decision to come to the house. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm looking for Harry Potter sir," those words made the colour vanish from the man's face. "We used to play in the same football team." Draco hurriedly added and hoped that the man wouldn't ask him anything about football. He had read about it somewhere in Sirius diary but Sirius didn't truly seem to understand the rules and since Draco's only knowledge came from there he understood very little.

"Football. A game for weaklings." The old man laughed, sounding as if Draco had confirmed something for him. Then he looked towards the stairs. "Come down here _boy_! And hurry up!"

Draco barely repressed the shiver he felt at the sound of the man screaming. It only took a few seconds before he heard a door open and then he heard footsteps approaching. Harry had to walk down the entire stair and could barely fit in the hallway with his uncle standing there. The fat man pointed at Draco and the moment Harry laid eyes on him they widened and reminded Draco of what he had looked like during their first year at Hogwarts. Everything amazed him. Draco wasn't surprised that this did too.

" _This boy_ ," Draco frowned at the way the fat man said it. "Says that you used to play football together. Is that true?"

Draco nodded when the fat man wasn't looking. Harry seemed both dazed and confused at first but once the man had shaken his shoulder he nodded. "Yeah, that's true. What are you doing here, Ma- Draco?"

"I was looking through a bunch of old stuff and I found something you might be interested in. Can I come in?" Draco glanced at the man and then back at Harry. "It won't take long." he added to be safe.

Harry glanced at the muggle next to him.

"Fine." He eventually said and glared at Harry. "But you're not leaving your room, do you hear me?"

"Yes, uncle Vernon." Harry glanced at Draco for a second. There was a slight blush on his cheeks. "My room's upstairs."

Draco nodded. He thought about thanking the man Harry called uncle Vernon but opted for following Harry up the stairs. The boy Draco had spent hating for two years looked skinnier during the summers as per usual. His room was tiny and there was almost nothing in there that reminded Draco of Harry. It was a boring room, with basic furniture that looked worn-out and used multiple times before. The boy with the messy hair sat down on the bed and gestured towards the chair. Draco sat down.

"So, what are you doing here Malfoy?"

Draco reached for his back pocket and didn't miss the way Harry flinched. He couldn't stop himself from smirking. "Relax Potter. I found this diary." he held up the leather-bound book. "It's written by a man called Sirius Black. Does that name mean anything to you?"

Harry shook his head.

"Well- ", Draco leaned forward and gave him the book. "He knew your father. In fact, they were best friends."

Harry scoffed. "How do you know that?"

"Because it says so." Draco responded. "Read the last entry he wrote."

Harry looked through the pages until he found the final entry. He raised an eyebrow as he read it and glanced at Draco. "Wow, it really must have been bad if he chose to run away from home." Harry sighed deeply and looked at Draco again. "So, you just found this and decided that you were going to come _here_ just to give it to me?"

"It sounds crazy, I know."

"It sounds like you're up to something." Harry put the book on the bed next to him. "If you're going to come with some stupid threat or maybe even get some of your baboons here then just do it already. I'm in no mood to argue or fight you. Besides I need my uncle to sign my permission so that I can go to Hogsmeade with my friends and he won't do that if I'm too… _visible_."

Draco and Harry both became quiet. Harry wasn't sure why he had told Draco that and Draco wasn't sure what he was going to respond to. They were enemies. If anything, he was supposed to make fun of Harry but after meeting Vernon that didn't sound as appealing as it normally did. And the fact that Sirius, whom had already affected Draco without them having met, liked James Potter also played its part. If James was a decent enough guy to take Sirius in after he ran away, then Harry couldn't be as bad as Draco had told himself.

"I… I read the diary." Draco said. The roles were reversed and he was now avoiding Harry's eyes. "And I like it. He writes a lot about the pureblood world and how he views it. I've never thought about it that way before and it was nice. I can see what people dislike so much about it. I never have before. And then I saw that he wrote James Potter in the end and I felt like you should have this."

"Why?" Harry frowned.

"Because the other option was me keeping it with in my house or put it back in the house where he grew up." Draco shrugged. "And he ran away from that house and that whole world. It didn't feel right to put the book back. I think he would want you to have this."

"He would want _dad_ to have this." Harry said barely loud enough to be heard.

Draco nodded. "Yeah." The tension was growing and he felt something crawl on the inside of his skin. "I promise that I'm not here to screw things up for you or ruin your summer. I really just wanted to give you the book."

"I believe you."

"Do you?"

"Well yeah," Harry smirked. "If you wanted to do something you would have done it by now. I've spent enough time around bullies to know at least that."

Draco laughed. He couldn't argue with that. "Well," he spoke eventually. "I guess I should go."

"I'll walk you out." Harry laughed as he heard Draco let out a sigh of relief. "You didn't like my uncle Vernon either?"

"Not really," Draco admitted while scratching his neck. "He's almost scary."

They walked out the room. It had only taken a few minutes and yet it didn't feel as if he made the trip for nothing. There was something different in the atmosphere between himself and Harry. He wouldn't say that they were friends – that would be taking it too far – but he would on the other hand say that they weren't enemies anymore. Draco let out a huff when he walked into Harry who had stopped in the middle of the stair.

"What are we doing?"

Harry turned around painfully slow. "I'm so sorry about this."

"Sorry about what?" Harry didn't answer but gestured for him to follow down the remainder of steps. Draco hissed. "Hey, what are you sorry about?"

Other than the big man – uncle _Vernon_ – there were three more people Draco had not seen. One women was tall with a neck as long as Vernon's was wide. Her mouth looked more like two thin lines that had been forcefully pressed together than anything else. Then there was as fat boy in his own age. He was the spitting image of Vernon down to the mannerisms.

"Marge." The thin women said and tried to get her thin arms around the big women's frame. She failed.

Marge was a huge woman with a dog who wouldn't stop barking sitting by her feet. She was the kind of women Narcissa would glance at and then smirk. When Draco was younger he didn't really understand, what was so funny but as he grew older it became quite clear what Narcissa found so amusing. This _Marge_ seemed unaware of his presence. She spoke to Vernon, the thin women named Petunia and then Dudley. Draco coughed to hide a laughter. _What kind of a name was Dudley?_ Harry put an elbow in his stomach and shook his head. But too late.

"And who's this?" Marge glared at Harry. "Boy, who's this?"

Vernon reacted first. "It's a friend from football." Marge had a similar reaction to the one Vernon had when he was told. "But he's leaving now."

Harry nodded.

"Leaving? Vernon, I'm appalled. Mother and father raised us better than this. He's staying."

"But Marge…"

"I really appreciate it." Draco started and ignored that Harry pinched his arm. "But my parents are expecting me home soon."

"His parents…"

"Shush Vernon!" Marge said pointing at her brother. She then directed her attention to Draco. "And you, stay."

Harry and Draco glanced at each other thinking the same thing for the first time ever. _Oh fuck_.


	2. Aunt Marge

**Title** : Old Scars and Future Hearts

 **Word Count** : 2, 766

 **Chapter two:** Aunt Marge

* * *

Draco had spent an embarrassing amount of time making fun of Harry or coming up with ways of making fun of him. He imagined – after Harry had refused to take his hand – that if he were ever given the optimal chance to make fun of Harry without the scrawny kid having the possibility of arguing back then he would take it. What a difference two years made.

This was his chance. He could make fun of Harry all he wanted and he didn't.

They weren't friends, Draco told himself, because he wasn't making fun of Harry. _Not at all_. It didn't mean anything other than that Draco had grown up a little bit in two years. Mostly during that very summer but he wasn't big on technicalities.

The atmosphere in the room rather reminded Draco of a passage in the diary.

 _Christmas was dreadful. As predicted. I was the victim of the year, also as predicted. The entire family – that's what we call ourselves anyway – sat down by the table and the hassling began. No, truthfully the hassling began earlier than that. But it didn't get really bad until we sat down by the table and everyone had drunk some wine. That's when the complaints began._

 _I was born too late in the year (I really apologize for that mother)._

 _I was too loud and I didn't give my brother enough room to use his full potential (He would apologize for not using his full potential if he could but you see, he's practically a mute… that's not true of course)._

 _Those were all the answers I gave them in my head. I have realised from years of arguing back that there is a time for rebelling and there is a time for backing off. You have to choose your battles and I'm not going to choose these. Not out loud anyway._

Harry very much looked like he could have needed to read that fact beforehand. Granted, he was very good at not reacting or saying anything back every time his relatives spoke about him over his head. He was _very_ good in fact. Only Draco, who sat next to him, could see the semi pained smile on his face and the ways his knuckles whitened due to the hard grip he had around his own legs.

Draco watched with disinterest as he tuned in and out of their conversation. He was much better at that. It wasn't odd either. He had, after all, thirteen years of practice. And Draco guessed, from the looks of it, that Harry had too.

"You, boy."

Draco looked up at the same time as Harry did and looked directly into the tiny eyes that looked as if they had been glued in place in Marge's bloated head. She was still chewing while she spoke to him. It reminded him almost of Weasley; Ronald to be precise. Not that Draco had any knowledge about the eating habits of the other millions that seemed to infest the school.

"What does your parents do for a living?" she continued, still chewing and Draco felt thankful for those thirteen years of practice because otherwise that could have been highly distracting.

"My mother doesn't work. But she's involved in a lot of…" He began stiffly. " _Charities_."

Harry tried to keep himself from not laughing by biting his lip but failed. Everyone's eyes turned to him and Harry's face turned into a violent shade of red as he mumbled incoherently about some food getting stuck in his throat.

"And your father?" Marge pressed on.

"My father…" Draco paused. He had never been asked what his father did for a living. It was just _known_ amongst his friends that it was important. And since it was important no one asked what he did that could be considered so important.

"His father owns a company." Harry said before Draco could come up with a coherent answer. The blond gave him a smile and Harry continued. "He co-started it a few years ago, with some Lord and since then it's only gone up. Well they did experience a slight setback thirteen years ago, but I reckon it's getting better now, wouldn't you say Draco?"

The blond didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. So, he opted for the former, took a bite of the food and nodded. "Yes, you took the words right out of my mouth."

The conversation changed direction again. Draco could barely hide his smile and when he, ironically enough, seemed to disappear out of the adults' periphery vision he didn't even bother hiding it. Harry however was cautious at all times. Every time the attention was directed his way he reminded Draco of a deer caught in the headlines. It was a muggle saying. Yet another thing he had learned from Sirius.

It was a slow dinner. Draco would even go so far as to say that the dinner was downright boring. It was worse than the meals he had with his whole extended pureblood family. And that family could be extended _very_ far and sometimes included people he had never seen before in his life. So, he amused himself by every now and again making snide comments. Sure, he'd read in Sirius diary that muggles weren't bad. But he wasn't making snide comments about them because they were muggles. He was doing it because quite frankly, they were morons.

It started out subtly.

Marge looked at her nephew with something looking like pride in her eyes. But in comparison to her face the eyes looked so tiny that Draco wasn't entirely sure. "So, Dudley, how are you doing in school? Getting good grades, I assume?"

"He passed all his subjects this semester." Aunt Petunia piped up with the biggest smile her tiny mouth could muster.

Draco leaned over to Harry with a discretion that only came from having been present at one too many stiff dinners with other pureblood families. "Now _that's_ what I call magic."

Harry managed to make his laughter sound like a cough, but just barely. His cheeks turned red again and he looked down on his plate. Draco much preferred it when he looked away out of fear of laughing at his relatives then out of fear of lashing out. Draco Malfoy was a lot of things and he could stand for a lot of things but families were supposed to stand united. It wasn't supposed to be like _this_.

"You need to eat more Dudley, you look like you've lost weight." Petunia said after Dudley had just finished his second taking of dinner. The young boy didn't argue.

This lead to a conversation about the food on a school that Draco had never heard off before. He didn't listen carefully enough to remember either. He was far too busy looking at Dudley whom supposedly looked _thinner_. Draco couldn't quite see it. Not even if he squinted as much as he possibly could.

He leaned over at Harry again. "I can see it. He does look thin." He said and ignored the way Harry rolled his eyes. "I mean if you close your eyes."

When Petunia came back Dudley's food covered plate Marge yet again pointed her fat fingers in Draco's direction.

"Boy, you look like you're about to vanish." She eyed him critically.

Draco put on his best sad face and tilted his head. "I've been told before." He replied solemnly.

Of course, that was not true. He had been told once that he needed to stop eating as much as he did because at some point that _magical_ metabolism he had was going to vanish and the years of eating was going to catch up with him. But there was really no fun in telling Marge that.

"See Petunia, that's a starving boy." She hit her sister-in-law and the tiny woman let out a shriek. "Bring him something more to eat. He needs to be grow and become as strong as your Dudley."

Petunia stood and reached for his plate.

"No thank you, that's alright."

Marge's tiny eyes looked at him as if he was something stuck underneath her shoes. "Are you implying that my sister-in-law's food isn't good enough for you?"

"Not at all. I appreciate you wanting to help but you see I can't imagine myself ever become as… _strong_ as Dudley." Draco said and forced his already solemn expression to grow deeper to make him seem more troubled than before. "I feel like the likelihood of me becoming as _sturdy_ as Dudley is tiny and I wouldn't want to set myself up for failure. He is after all _grandiose_."

Harry put his hand in front of his mouth and Draco could barely contain the smile that appeared on his face. To the others sitting around the table it sounded as if he was giving them compliments. Or rather giving Dudley compliments. But just like he would do at any pureblood dinner party Draco subtly, yet clear enough to be noticed, sounded venomous when he spoke some of the words. Harry caught up on it, and thus understood what Draco was really saying, but no one else seemed to. _Fortunate maybe_.

The insults kept coming. Draco didn't think, he just spoke and no one seemed to notice. Harry seemed to relax more that time went on and by the time he was clearing the table he was being self-derogatory. All just to get his uncle to give him permission to go to Hogsmeade. Draco couldn't say he understood the desperation to go there but who was he to judge.

If anyone would have told Draco Malfoy when he was eleven years old that he was going to have a meal with Harry Potter outside of school. And to a certain extent actually enjoy it then he would most likely… have told his father. That last part he realized with a tiny bit of disappointment. Anyone else would have acted right then and there but not him. No, he would have told his father. And worse than that Draco would probably tell everyone else that he would tell his father. _How depressing_.

The thought of his father was quickly replaced when he heard Marge ask about Harrys father. He glanced backwards to find Harry standing completely still with his back turned against them. Draco could feel the shift in the air before anything even happened.

"Probably a drunk too…"

"That's a lie." Anger. Draco had heard that tone in his voice so many times before that he realized instantly what kind of emotions spurred on the words that left Harry's mouth. The boy turned around. "My father wasn't a drunk!"

The glass in Marge's hands exploded. Petunia shrieked. Vernon gasped. And Dudley was watching TV. Draco kept his gaze firmly on Harry and was the only one who noticed his heavy breathing. Draco heard Marge command him to pick up the broken glass and watched him do it all while she kept talking.

"… then there's something wrong with the pup."

Draco closed his eyes. He wasn't shocked when the reason for him opening them again was the sound of glass hitting the ground. The shreds of the broken glass that had exploded in Marge's hand. Because Harry had thrown them on the floor. He was panting when he looked at them, his green eyes directed straight at Marge. The thirteen-year-old shook from anger and Draco couldn't blame him.

"Now you listen to me…" Marge became quiet and when Draco turned around to look at her he realized why.

Her finger. Though it had previously been big, as in _very_ big, Draco was quite sure that it hadn't looked that bloated. It now resembled a sausage much more than it did a finger and it appeared as if the rest of her body was following the trend. _Of bloating that was_.

Draco watched wide-eyed as the women in front of him grew. He cautiously pushed his chair away from the table and moved to stand by the door leading out of the kitchen. He looked around him. Harry was quietly watching the spectacle take place, _with a smile on his face_ , Petunia was shrieking with that pathetic shriek Draco had heard too much off. Vernon was called his sisters name, trying to putt her down in the midst of all the chaos. And Dudley, Draco sighed and rolled his eyes _, were watching TV._

Harry stood frozen. As if he was the one under some kind of spell. And remained such until aunt Marge had vanished to the sound of her brother calling her name. Draco was sure that there would be hell to pay when she came back down. She had specifically told Vernon to not let go. _And he had_. Though Draco didn't know the woman he was sure that she would _not_ forget that in a while.

"We're leaving." Harry hissed as he took a hold of Draco's shoulder and pushed him out of the kitchen.

Draco didn't question it. He didn't resist when he was being pushed out of the room and then showed himself out the front door. He heard the sound of something being kicked or hit. But was unable to react. He frowned as he looked ahead of himself. _That. Was. Crazy!_

A screaming match seemed to have erupted and just after Harry came rushing out of the house with his trunk, the empty cage that belonged to his owl and the diary in his back pocket. He stormed off down the street. Maybe not expecting Draco to be following him. But the blond did, without much trouble.

He was supposed to say something insulting. He was supposed to rub this into Harry's open wound. There were so many things he was supposed to do with this _information_.

"I'm guessing he didn't give you permission to go to Hogsmeade." Draco said after a long, awkward silence.

Harry couldn't restrain that smile that appeared on his face. "Good guess."

Draco smiled. "Do you do that a lot?"

"Blow up my aunt?" Harry shook his head. "No, can't say I do."

"Hilarious," Draco faked a laugh. "No, do you _go off_ like that a lot?"

" _Go off_? I thought that was involuntary magic."

"You're too old for involuntary magic." Draco insisted. "You were _going off_. Do you really not know what that is?" Harry shook his head. "It's when your magic sort of explodes. It's a light consequence of hiding your magic. If you do it a little, it's fine but if you hide it too much or try to repress it, I guess is a better word, then you'll have moments when you explode. Kind of like you just did."

Harry hummed.

Draco hummed.

Neither wanted to talk about what had happened or why it had happened. In fact, that entire day had been a wild ride from beginning to end and neither of the two would mind leaving this day behind them. Harry stopped after a while. He took several deep breaths and sat down on his bag.

"So, where are you going now?"

"I don't know." Harry mumbled. "The Leaky Cauldron I guess."

 _You could come home with me_. The words were on Draco's mind. But they were never spoken. Of course, Harry couldn't come home with him. His parents would have a fit. Not right then and there because that would be impolite to the guest. Despite the fact that he was _seriously_ unwanted. And just because they had spent the day together – _involuntarily so_ – that didn't mean that they were best friends all of the sudden. It didn't mean that they were friends at all, period.

"You should go home." Harry said. "Your parents are probably looking for you."

Draco snorted. "I doubt it." _He did very much doubt it_. "But you're right." He stretched out his hand for Harry to take. He wasn't the least surprised when Harry raised an eyebrow before cautiously reaching for his hand. "Thanks for dinner Potter. It's been _educational._ "

"Likewise, Malfoy." Harry gave him a crooked smile. "I'll see you when school starts."

"That you will."

Draco gave him a nod and continued walking down the street, leaving Harry behind. There was going to be hell to pay when he got back. Not because he was gone for the entire day but because he looked the way he did. Draco could imagine the face his mother would give him when she saw the curls on his head. _Sweet Merlin_ , he didn't look forward to that. But it was so worth it.


	3. The Leaky Cauldron

**Title** : Old Scars and Future Hearts

 **Word Count** : 2, 672

 **Chapter three:** The Leaky Cauldron

* * *

There really was no reason for him to do this. It was the fourth or the fifth-time Draco thought those words in his head. At least he hoped he had only thought them. If he said them out loud then people would think that he was crazy. _Maybe he was crazy_. That would explain a lot. Nothing else could explain why he was yet again _walking_ to go see Harry Potter. The person he was meant to hate. Whom he was somewhat struggling to hate after seeing what he was forced to deal with on a day to day basis. Draco still disliked him _very much_. He just didn't hate him.

Draco could have gotten into trouble if his parents had been at home. His mother was still unhappy with the fact that he had been walking around in curls. Apparently, it wasn't suitable. Draco didn't understand what was so wrong about curls but he knew better than to question the force of nature that was Narcissa Malfoy. Force of nature or not, Draco knew as soon as he saw the newspaper that morning that he had to go see Harry. _Whether he liked it or not_.

It was inhumanly warm. And despite the huge quantities of products his mother had forced the house elves – _she didn't trust him to do it himself_ – to put in his hair it still managed to become curly. Draco liked it. It didn't feel like he was wearing a helmet anymore. That didn't mean that he could not wait to get away from the blasting sun. It felt like it was trying to burn him alive.

He glared at the man who sat by the desk of the Leaky Cauldron when he asked which room belonged to Harry Potter. He used the kind of expression he had seen his mother use time and time again. He knew that it was going to work regardless of the age of the person who was at the receiving end of it. He didn't know what he was expecting to see when he pushed the door open after having been told to do so by Harry himself. But he was not expecting to see the young man half laying on his bed with the diary raised above his head.

"Good book you got there?" Draco commented as he closed the door behind and sat down on the closest chair.

Harry didn't even bother trying to hide the shock he felt when he saw Draco. His jaw fell and seconds later the book slipped from his hands and ended up hitting him on the nose. He grunted and thankfully missed the smile that appeared on Draco's face.

Harrys cheeks were red from embarrassment when he had closed the book and put it on the bed next to him as he sat straight. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought you would appreciate the company. It has to be weird for _the_ Harry Potter not the be surrounded by his adoring fans."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Are you talking about my friends because you can have those as well if you just stop acting like a spoiled brat. Now tell me what you came here for."

Draco threw the newspaper at the bed. There was a big picture on the front page of a wild-looking man with brown hair. It appeared as if he was screaming at something or someone and just above the picture his name was written in big bold letters: Sirius Black.

Harry glanced at it. "I have seen this."

"I don't buy it."

"I hate to disappoint but I don't think that anyone cares if you buy that Sirius escaped from Azkaban."

Draco frowned. "That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about why he ended up in Azkaban in the first place. I asked my father about it and he says that it was because he sold out your parents to the Dark Lord and when he was confronted by Peter Pettigrew who was a friend of theirs and then he murdered Peter and twelve other muggles. That's what I'm not buying. There is no way that could have happened. Sirius would never do that."

The longer he spoke the louder his voice became and by the end of the rant Draco was almost shouting. Harry on the other hand was quiet. He looked at the newspaper in front of him and then at the diary.

"You have an awful lot of faith in a person you don't know."

Draco shrugged. "I need to."

"How come?"

Draco sneered. "You don't need to know that _Potter_."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Fine _Malfoy_ , did you come here just to show me something I have already seen and tell me that you _don't buy it_ or did you come here for something else?"

"We need to find him."

Harry's eyes doubled in size and he looked at Draco as if he had suggested that they go elope together.

"Are you suggesting that you and I go look for a prosecuted murderer because of the diary he wrote when he was a teenager?" When Draco nodded, Harry began laughing. "This is hilarious on so many levels. I cannot believe that you are proposing that we – _you and I_ – work together and to find someone who is a prosecuted murderer."

"That's the second time you said that thing about him being a murderer." Draco pointed out.

"Yeah well, it seems as if that particular piece of information keeps slipping your mind so I felt it was necessary to remind you." Harry pushed himself closer to the edge of the bed so that his feet touched the floor. "I feel like I should tell you again. Draco, this is a prosecuted murderer. A _murderer_. Someone who has taken lives. Twelve of them to be exact. No, actually fifteen if you count my parents."

"And I've told you _Harry_ , I don't buy it. I don't believe that Sirius became evil after everything he went through. There is no way in hell that he would all of the sudden betray the person who gave him a home when he had nowhere else to go. It is just absurd. _No one would do that_."

"Maybe someone got to him."

"That's bullshit." Draco sneered and stood up. "I came here to tell you because I assumed that you would be interested in what happened to your godfather and how he managed to escape from Azkaban – escaping from Azkaban is said to be impossible by the way – but I can see that I'm wrong. I shouldn't have come here."

His hand barely touched the door when Harry spoke. "My godfather?"

Draco rolled his eyes. "Yes Potter, you know the person your parents think are suitable to take care of you if they die while you are underage."

Harry frowned. "Oh shut up, I know what it means. I just didn't know that he was my godfather. I always assumed that aunt Petunia and uncle Vernon were my godparents."

Draco felt a shiver going down his spine. Sometimes he didn't consider himself fortunate when it came to parents and godparents and what not but the idea of living with Harry's relatives were a tiny bit worse than the idea of living with Bellatrix and Rodolphus. They would have probably left him alone.

"Yeah, well they aren't." Draco said with a shrug. "Does that change anything? Are you coming or should I just leave right now?"

Harry sat quietly for a few minutes before he collected his shoes from the other side of the room and put them on his feet. He was a few steps after Draco when the blond walked out of the room and as soon as they were out of the Leaky Cauldron he walked next to him. Once in Diagon Alley the distance between the two grew. They walked not close enough so that it would like as if they were walking next to each other but not so far away that they would lose each other.

Harry walked with his hands down his pockets and only took them out to push his hair out of his eyes or push his glasses further up his nose. Most of the time he faced the ground and missed the various looks he got given from people that Draco had never seen in his life and students that he had seen more of than he wanted to. From time to time he looked up and glanced at Draco to see if he was still there. Then he looked down again.

"What are we doing here?"

Draco rolled his eyes at the question and walked further into the shop that was Flourish and Blotts. He couldn't claim that it was his favourite place to go but he did know his way around. Unlike Harry who looked as if he had no idea that one could go further into the shop to the area which didn't contain books that they were at some point obligated to read.

"We are looking at some history books that the school would probably frown upon. A lot of people would probably frown upon them and that is the reason why they are hidden further back with the history of the pureblood families. Today's society are not as proud of their purebloods as they used to be."

"You have a history book about your family?" Harry asked as he followed Draco into an empty corner.

"You have one too." Draco responded as he stopped and began looking through the various shelves. "The Potters have a long history. But I am assuming that you know nothing about it." – he paused and pulled out a book. – "If you're curious about your family I'd read this one. It pretty much tells you everything you need to know from the twelfth-century wizard from who you originated."

Harry took the book but barely had any time to think about thanking him much less do it before Draco had moved on further down the shelves.

"What are we looking for?"

"We are looking for a book about Sirius Black."

"Why would there be a book about a murderer?"

Draco stopped and looked at Harry while he shook his face. "Do you want to think about what you just asked me and take it back before I give you exactly the kind of dumb answer that your dumb question is worthy of?" Harry didn't reply. "Because he is a murderer and he came from a wealthy pureblood family. You see there are not only benefits with being born into a pureblood family there are some disadvantages too. Everything you do is under scrutiny and not just by your peers no by the rest of society too. Since you are pureblood and thus have more power and more wealth – well some of the purebloods – you are held to higher standards and when you make a mistake – and you will – they will make sure that it is out there for the entire society to know and all purebloods will forever be held accountable for what _you_ did."

"That's not fair."

Draco didn't respond. Harry was right. It wasn't fair. But since when did that affect anything that went on in the world. There were a lot of things that wasn't fair. A bright smile appeared on Draco's face. "Here it is."

The two boys took the books with them and sat down in the nearest corner. They were both hidden by layers upon layers of books so that no one could see them. Draco opened the book and Harry scooted closer to him so that he could see what he was reading.

"It says that Sirius Orion Black was born November 3rd 1959 as the oldest son to Walburga and Orion Black. He had one younger brother called Regulus who passed away when he was eighteen years old." Draco frowned. "That's very young."

Harry shrugged. "Eighteen is as good of an age for dying as any other age is." He pulled the book closer to him when he realised that Draco wasn't about to change the page. "Obviously, we need to look at what it says happened when he was in school and then the years following. We can start looking when we know he stopped writing in the diary. Because up until then we have all the information we need."

 _Eighteen is a good of an age for dying as any other age is_.

Draco didn't want to admit it but those words echoed in his mind and had him frowning. It sounded very odd coming from Harry Potter. The chosen one. The boy who lived. Why would he be talking about dying? The question was just at the tip of his tongue but Draco didn't ask. It felt as if there was a physical blockade stopping him from doing so.

"It says here that Sirius Black thrived in Hogwarts based on the few sources that this author had. It also says that Potter and Black were like brothers and that it was highly unlikely that Sirius betrayed them. What else…" Harry squinted. "It also says that the writer failed in getting in contact with Remus Lupin who was a third friend of theirs. The conclusion of the writer is that Sirius Orion Black could have betrayed them and killed those twelve muggles but he highly doubted it. The only thing you ever hear is how unlikely it is to be true and those who claim it to be true refuse to do so when confronted about their opinions."

Harry leaned back into his chair as Draco read the same passage that he had just read out loud. A part of the diary he had just read came to mind.

 _Most people I know thrive on the failure of others. My parents are never quite as happy as when another pureblood family have lost money or maybe when one of their children have failed them by being sorted in the wrong house. Since I grew up that way I assumed that was just how the world was. But I was wrong. The Potters proved me wrong and I am very grateful for that._

 _They treat me like I'm their son. They treat me better than my own parents do and I don't know what I would do without them. I am never going to stop showing them just how thankful I am for all the things they do for me. Showing them my gratitude is the least I can do._

Harry too believed that the world was wicked. To a certain extent. He knew that there was evil in the world and that bad things happened every day despite of what you did to prevent it. In the end, it was all down to sheer and dumb luck.

When Draco appeared in his room that day he didn't think twice about Sirius Black. If he was seen as guilty then he probably was. Of course, Harry could see the sad in it. After having read the diary that Sirius had written he wanted it to work out of this person. He needed things to work out for this tormented boy. To find out that it hadn't was like being dealt a blow in the gut. It felt really bad. The idea that he was innocent made Harry feel better. And even if there was little to no evidence that supported the idea that he was innocent Harry couldn't help but believe and hope that he was.

"So, you keep looking in this book." Harry said and got up from his seat. "I'm sure there's more information in there somewhere. I am going to see if there's more books about the actual event and not just Sirius as a person."

Draco nodded. "So, you believe me?"

"No, I believe in Sirius."

"You have an awful lot of faith in a person you don't know."

Harry laughed. "Well, what can I say. I need to."


	4. Hogwarts Express

**Title** : Old Scars and Future Hearts

 **Word Count** : 2, 057

 **Chapter four:** Hogwarts Express

* * *

When school started Harry didn't tell anyone about the many number of hours he had spent with Draco Malfoy looking through book after book to find something that would argue against Sirius being guilty. He wasn't exactly lying about it or keeping it a secret but since no one asked he saw no reason to tell them. He assumed that Draco was going to ignore him when school started and expected to see the blond sporting his usual straight hairdo when the time came to go back to school. Harry assumed that the few times Draco had gotten into trouble with his parent during the summer was forgotten and that they would be walking next to him onto the platform as they usually did with one hand on each shoulder looking as if they were guiding the next prince of England. He couldn't help but glance around when he appeared at the platform with Hermione, Ron and the rest of the Weasley family but Draco was nowhere to be seen.

Thoughts of the blond Slytherin fell into the back of his mind as he followed Ron and Hermione down the corridor of the train looking for someplace to sit. Harry could easily admit to not really looking much. Too many other thoughts occupied his already crowded mind and he allowed himself to push looking for places to sit low on his list of priorities.

Mr. Weasley had been one of the people to make him promise that he wasn't going to do something that it became increasingly obvious he had to. "Promise me that you won't go looking for Sirius Black."

Harry had frowned but for reasons Mr. Weasley didn't know and opted for lying directly into his face. "Why would I go looking for someone who's trying to kill me?"

In reality Harry doubted that Sirius Black had escaped Azkaban to kill him. He didn't want to believe that was true. Sentences upon sentences from the diary that he had written repeated themselves in Harry's mind every time someone started talking about Sirius Black.

 _Hogwarts is my home. I have a family here and I would do anything to protect them. In a world that is uncertain, unfair and unsafe that is the only thing I can promise and guarantee. Whatever life throws my way I will make sure that my brothers are safe. Because that is really all I need; for them to live and be happy._

It was hard if not even impossible to believe that the man who wrote that as a child were going after Harry – the child of his best friend – just to kill him. It deepened Harry's frown. It made absolutely no sense. And he needed it to not be true. He needed that more than he had ever needed anything before.

"Everything's taken." Hermione said as she glanced at Ron and Harry. "Let's just sit in there."

She glanced inside the windows where an older man sat. He thin, pale face was covered in scars of various sizes and age. His hair was dirty blond and he appeared to not have any kind of energy as he sat slumped to the side completely oblivious to the world on the outside.

"Who's that?" Ron asked as the trio sat down.

"Professor R.J Lupin."

"How did you know that?" Ron turned to Harry. "How come she knows everything?"

Hermione frowned. "It's written on his luggage, Ronald."

Harry's frown deepened as his two friends bickered sounding mostly playful but every now and again a comment that sounded harsher than the others would sneak itself into the conversation. R.J Lupin. It could be Remus Lupin, Harry thought to himself, but it didn't have to be. He remembered that the Remus Lupin mentioned in the books about Sirius did have a middle name but couldn't remember what it was. The more he thought about it the further away the name flew from his grasp and eventually Harry was almost entirely sure that the middle name didn't start with J. For a moment, he wished that he had listened to Draco and written things down or at least bought the book. At the time, it had seemed like a bad idea because if by any chance that Sirius was innocent and they somehow managed to prove that so that he could live a normal life then owning a book stating that he was a crazy murderer probably wouldn't look too good. He just had to ask Draco at some point.

"So, what did dad talk to you about?" Ron asked and pulled Harry out of his own mind.

"Sirius Black, escaped and supposedly very dangerous convict." Harry stated. "Apparently, he'd been mumbling that someone was at Hogwarts and that has led to people believe that's he's coming to kill me and that is the reason that he escaped from Azkaban. Your dad wanted me to promise him that I won't go look for Sirius."

Hermione frowned. "You won't do that right?"

Harry looked straight into her brown eyes. He wanted to tell her the truth and that was that if he could find some kind of evidence to prove that Sirius was innocent then yes, he would go looking for him. If there was even the glimmer of a chance that Sirius was a victim in this entire mess then yes, Harry would drop everything to go look for him. But after a few seconds of silence he shook his head. "No, this feels like the one year when Voldemort might leave me alone. I don't really fancy spending the year with running around after another possible psycho murderer that people claim is out to get me."

Ron nodded. "Exactly Hermione. I can't believe that you thought that Harry would be spending this year running around after another psycho. He is much smarter than that."

Hermione hummed. But the doubtful expression didn't leave her face and Harry's smile didn't seem to make any difference. Ron kept on talking next to them, not noticing that his friends were less than involved in his conversation, and Harry had never been more grateful.

He believed wholeheartedly, especially after this summer, that no one could blame him for being selfish or doing things for his own sake. Everything he had ever done was for someone else. Most of the time with the purpose of saving them. And for once he wanted to do something that was for him. If Sirius was innocent naturally Harry would want to help him because an innocent man should never be treated the way that he had. But Harry also wanted to do it because he needed to. Because if Harry Potter managed to save an innocent man from being further treated badly by society then that could maybe give him some hope that things would work out in the end.

In another compartment, Draco Malfoy carried almost the same doubtful expression as he listened to his so-called friends loudly talk about what they had done during the summer. Crabbe and Goyle had never been particularly good conversationalists but at that very moment Draco suspected that the little skill they possessed had somehow vanished over the course of approximately two months. Mostly groans, hums and other kinds of sounds mostly associated with hunger in animals came from their supposedly human bodies. It took everything in Draco not to sigh deeply and cover his eyes with his hand in order to not have to look at them.

Those two morons were just enough to give Draco a headache. And they did almost every year during the ride back and forth between Hogwarts and London. However, this year the piercing headache was not because of those two idiots. Being yelled at, Draco had learned, could also lead to headache and it felt as if his parents had done nothing but scream at him for various reasons during the summer.

Sirius wrote in his diary that not all battles were meant to be fought and that you had to pick the right ones. Draco had been doing that the entire summer; picking battles that he needed to fight because if he didn't, he was sure to go completely mad.

"Draco, your hair makes you look so common." Narcissa had told him one day with a snarl as scrunched her face together at the sight of his curls. "You father and I would feel so much better if you could just fix it before the party tonight. Oh, and make sure to talk to the Greengrass family. We want to make a good impression."

Draco allowed himself a one-sided smile as he heard those words. This was a battle he could take. It wasn't big enough to truly upset them. "I quite like my hair this way mother." He said in a bored voice and looked up from the table only to serve himself a second plate of eggs and toast. "And I doubt that we need to make a good impression at the Greengrass family. If anything, they need to make a good impression on us. Unless there is something you're not telling me."

He eyed his parents. Not carefully the way he was supposed to as their child. But as if he was their equal. Something that was unheard of unless they were found in the public in which case his parents gave the well-practiced impression that Draco's thoughts and ideas almost mattered. The keyword being almost. Draco dared them to say something, to provoke him, so that he could maybe, if it was worth it, take the battle further than just to this.

None of his parents spoke. But that didn't mean that Draco had won the battle.

It was the last day before school. The Malfoys always had their annual party, or ball as Narcissa Malfoy liked to call it, and that meant that every pureblood family that meant something was invited. The Greengrass family was one of them. It was important that Draco looked the part of the perfect son that he was supposed to be. No one suspected that he was going to behave in any other way than how his parents wanted him to. They assumed that he would play the part that was expected of him. The role of a Malfoy.

But when he showed up his hair was curly and gracefully messy. Just that was enough to make his mother internally gasp. But what made her eyes grow double in size and what made his father growl like some kind of animal rather than a human was the fact that he wore muggle clothing. He walked with his hands down his pockets, head held straight as if he didn't see what the big fuss was about. Internally his adrenaline was rushing through his body and Draco wondered who was going to act first.

"You look very nice." Astoria said as she approached the young man standing alone in front of the table filled with food. She glanced at his hair. "I really like your curls."

"Thank you." Draco smiled. Even when he tried keeping his eyes focused on her brown ones he saw the way people looked at him. His father looked as furious he could in public without making a fool out of himself. Lucius was by no means a master at hiding his emotions. "Are you sure that you should be talking to me? I'm causing quite the scandal you know."

Draco gestured for his outfit. Astoria looked at him and shrugged. "Oh well, I like a good scandal. And haven't you heard, scandals rarely come alone?"

Draco tilted his head and gave her an amused smile. "I thought that was accidents."

"That works too." She whispered before Lucius Malfoy broke them up and after stiffly announcing that his son wasn't feeling well practically tore Draco's arm out of its socket to get him up the stars which he came from.

The memory brought a smile on Draco's face. All his life he had acted the way people wanted him to, looked the way people wanted him to and spoke the way they wanted him to. For once, Draco was going to do something that he wanted to, he was going to do something good for others; he was going to prove that Sirius Black was innocent.


	5. The Slytherin Prince: Part I

**Title** : Old Scars and Future Hearts

 **Word Count** : 2, 026

 **Chapter five:** The Slytherin Prince, Part I

* * *

The first full day at Hogwarts was not going to be like all the other days Draco had experienced. His hair was curly, his shirt was pulled up to his armpits and his tie didn't hang around his neck tight like a noose. He looked himself in the mirror. This was more symbolic if anything else. It wasn't the first time he looked like he just crawled out of bed but the other times that had been just what he had done. He had just crawled out of bed. Draco had never tried to look like that on purpose. Until now.

No one reacted to the way he looked. Not that he noticed. Draco walked with his head held high and his hands firmly pushed down his pockets to hide the fact that they were trembling. It was one thing to disobey his parents in the privacy of their home. What Draco was going to do now was something completely different. A passage in Sirius diary came to mind.

 _The best and the worst day of my life was the day after I had been sorted in Gryffindor. I can still remember the feelings of dread that took over me as I waited for everyone to look at me like I didn't belong there. I was the first Black in a very long time to end up in Gryffindor. How could I be accepted? I learned pretty quickly that if you acted as if you belonged people would think that you did. I learned something that day and to this very day I remind myself of that lesson I learned when I have to be somewhere that I don't belong. Fake it until you make it._

That's what Draco thought when he walked into the Great Hall. He took a deep breath and looked around the Gryffindor table for that familiar head of messy black hair that he had seen way too much of the past summer; who he, ironically enough, searched for the first thing he did on the very first day. As soon as he laid eyes on him, with Weasley and Granger, he walked towards him with a heart that appeared to be beating quicker every step that he took. He repeated another passage from the diary.

 _Once it became clear to me that my parents were hypocrites it was impossible to close my eyes to it. I had to rebel against them. People in my family will probably look at me and say that it was possible to ignore it and that I should have just accepted my place. But I couldn't do that. They will never understand that but I don't need them to either. I needed to rebel so that's what I did._

Draco stopped behind Harry. Weasley and Granger glared at him from across the table but Harry didn't seem to notice as he was too preoccupied with buttering his toast. By now he was well aware of the fact that people were staring; they were either glancing or glaring, all of them wanted to know what he was going at the Gryffindor table. It was the last place anyone ever thought they would see him.

Ron snarled at him and for a moment reminded Draco of himself. "What are you doing here Malfoy?"

Harry turned around and looked at him. Draco felt his cheeks turn red. He had been so preoccupied with pushing himself to do this that he never thought about the fact that Harry wouldn't want to talk to him inside of school. Draco knew he needed to rebel, he needed to do something that wasn't for him and he needed Harry's help to do that but he never imagined a scenario where Harry didn't want anything to do with him. For a moment, as what felt like millions of thoughts ran through his head, Draco felt a bit sick to his stomach.

Harry eyes widened, a smile appeared on his face and then he moved somewhat to the side to create room on the bench next to him. "Ah, good! I was actually going to look for you later but now that you're here I might as well tell you right now." Harry paused.

Draco looked strangely stiff as he stood next to the Gryffindor table, barely looking at Harry. Never once had Harry seen him look down rather than holding his head up during the many times they had seen each other during summer. It was an unsettling sight for a reason Harry couldn't explain. He moved his head so that he could look Draco directly in the eyes. "Do you want to sit?"

Draco felt a weight leave his shoulders and he sat down with his back against the people behind him. It was hard to tell if Harry noticed the furious glances from the for once united Granger and Weasley or if he merely chose to ignore them. He kept on buttering his toast in peace and now until he was done did he look up at them and raised his eyebrows as if asking them to say something.

Hermione gave up glaring at Harry and turned to Draco. "What are you doing here Malfoy?" she repeated the earlier question and Weasley nodded while she spoke.

"I'm having breakfast." Draco replied smugly with a mocking expression on his face and reached for a piece of toast. "What does it look like I'm doing Granger?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Don't mind him Hermione. We have been working on a project and I told Draco to meet me here so that we could go find professor Lupin and ask him for some advice."

"Lupin?" Draco frowned.

Harry gave him an amused grin. "Yes, Draco. R.J Lupin, you know the new professor that we were introduced to yesterday at dinner. Ring any bells?"

"Ah, Remus John Lupin." Draco said mostly to himself rather than to the others. Harry let out an ah, before muttering that he had guessed very wrong. Draco could feel the glaring go intense. "Oh well, I guess I'll see you later Potter. I can see Crabbe and Goyle looking confused. They've probably forgotten which table they should go to. See you later."

Draco didn't give the raven-haired boy any time to ask him why he was leaving or to comment that Crabbe and Goyle were nowhere in sight. Draco felt his heart beat quicker in his chest and his breathing came more rapidly than before. It may not have looked like much but he had just done something that he could never take back. In a time and place where sticking to your own house, your own blood, was more important than anything else he had done the worst thing he could do; and everyone knew it.

Draco had never been ignored before. Especially not from people in his own house and yet that was exactly what happened when he sat down. People glanced at him, some with expressions he couldn't interpret and others looked just like their parents would have; had they seen a child of another pureblood doing something that would bring even the tiniest bit of shame on the family. He tried to ignore them and kept his eyes focused on the toast, the porridge and the cup of tea in front of him. No one spoke, no one knew how to interpret the interaction they had seen a few tables down; the interaction between the two most unlikely people to every be able to talk in a polite manner.

"Good morning Draco." Astoria sat down on the opposite side of the table. "Why are people looking at you like you have the plague or something? Did you do something scandalous again and if you did why couldn't you have waited until I got here? Mother and father is going to be so disappointed." She gave him a one-sided smile that looked nothing short of ironic.

Draco gave her a smile and chuckled at the question. "Good morning Astoria. I apologise for not waiting for you before doing the scandalous thing that was talking to Potter over by his table in the centre of all that red and gold. I should have thought about you before doing that. If it helps I think Daphne might be able to tell your parents. I'm sure they only need one source to gloat about it to my parents."

Astoria pretended to wipe her forehead. "Thank Merlin, you almost had me worried Malfoy. Imagine if neither one of us would have been here to see it. The shame would have been too much for our dear parents to deal with. What good is having two teenage girls in Hogwarts if they cannot gossip about the kind of horrible things other pureblood children does that will shame entire families in one go?"

Draco shrugged. "You ask very good questions. Sadly, I don't have any answers for you."

Astoria hummed. Her eyes roamed the table for a minute and then she began moving things around picking things from different plates and putting them on her own or if nothing else in close proximity. Her hair went from being behind her shoulder to in front of it and every time it gracefully moved over it she pushed it back again. Never with a sigh or a groan like Pansy would do as if the small action took _oh, so much_ of her energy. Astoria simply did it without giving the action much thought and proceeded in whatever she had been doing just before. She was much smarter than many other first year students. Not that Draco spent much time with those; he just assumed that she was.

"The party was boring after your dad gave everyone that bad excuse about you not feeling well." Astoria commented before taking a bite of her toast. "Daphne and I tried talking to Crabbe and Goyle but they didn't have much to say. I thought that they couldn't be as stupid as they pretended to be in school but as it turns out they aren't exactly the brightest people in the room. Not even in _that_ room."

Draco laughed. A genuine laughter that was rarely heard regardless if he was home or in school. Astoria managed to lure it out with her honesty and the straightforwardness in her voice when she said what he, and undoubtedly a lot of other people too, had thought for many years.

"I'm sorry about that." Draco said with a shrug.

"Don't be." Astoria shook her head while she ate. "Maybe spending time with Crabbe and Goyle weren't the highlight of my summer or any other summer for that matter but that party would have been boring regardless of who I hung out with. You made it a bit more fun with your little dramatic entrance; with the curly hair and the clothes. I could feel the anger radiating from your dad from across the room. And because of that, you made the party the best one I have ever been on. So, thank you."

Draco shook his head and laughed. "Well, I'm glad I could help. That was an unexpected side effect but a positive such and how can that be anything other than good. You just let me know if there's anything else I can do to make these parties more tolerable."

Astoria tilted her head. "Well, for starters you can keep it up. Real talk, not because of your parents or because of anything other than that which might be seen as bigger than you…" Draco didn't even bother hiding the curious expression on his face. "I think you should keep doing things because you're much nicer now. You haven't changed per say but if I would have talked to you last year you might not have responded and now you do. I would like you to do anything you can in order to stay like this and keep talking to me regardless of the reason you have for doing it."

Draco nodded. "Okay, I can do that." He took another piece of toast. "What do you want to talk about?"


	6. The Slytherin Prince: Part II

**Title** : Old Scars and Future Hearts

 **Word Count** : 2, 315

 **AN** : Some of you may have noticed that I have changed the pairing again. I apologize for doing that but I have no idea what kind of pairing I am going for at the moment. I decided to keep my options open and we'll see what happens. Thoughts regarding whom I should pair Harry with are highly appreciated!

 **Chapter six:** The Slytherin Prince, Part II

* * *

Draco stood leaned against the wall outside of the Great Hall when Harry walked out a mere half hour later. At first the raven-haired boy walked straight by him but when Draco whistled he turned around.

"There you are." Harry said and approached him completely oblivious to the stares they were getting.

"Here I am." Draco responded bracing himself for the variation of cruel glares he would be on the receiving end off as they began making their way through the castle. "So, what did Weasley and Granger say about _this_?"

He gestured between Harry and himself. Harry snorted and gave him an amused smile.

"I'm more curious about what your friends had to say about your attire. And what your father had to say when he found out that you'd been voluntarily spending time with me." Harry whispered the second sentence with his eyes somewhat more widened and Draco let out a chuckle as the tension in his shoulders began disappearing.

 _The first day is over and I did it. I managed to pull through. James made it easy and he made this first day pretty amazing in spite of the circumstances. He managed to make me laugh, he protected me when my stupid cousins told me the same words I know I'll be hearing a lot this summer and more importantly he didn't care about my last name. He didn't do all those things because I was a Black. He did it because he wanted to. I think I just found my first real friend._

"I haven't told my father that I've been spending time with you, _Potter_." Draco replied with a hint of a smile on his face. "I don't have a death wish."

 _Unlike some people_ , he thought to himself and glanced at Harry who he could barely see in the periphery of his eye. _Eighteen is as good of an age for dying as any other age._ Draco never thought he would obsess over words spoken by Harry James Potter but those words had been hard to forget.

Harry shrugged as he pushed his hands into his pockets. "Well clearly you must have some death wish. Do you really think that your father won't hear about this? I wouldn't be surprised if you got a howler by lunch or the very latest by breakfast tomorrow."

Draco hummed. "My father doesn't really deal with conflicts that way. He prefers doing it in private and by using other means of proving his point."

Harry felt the question on the tip of his tongue but he remained quiet. They weren't friends yet. And he didn't know if they would ever become actual friends or if this, whatever it was, would just end as soon as they had proven that Sirius was innocent. Harry didn't give the thought much time as they walked in the classroom only to find professor Lupin standing with his back against them looking down at the desk.

"Excuse me sir," Draco said with a more professional tone of voice. Professor Lupin turned around almost instantly and a one-sided smile appeared on his face as he sat down on the desk. "We didn't mean to disturb you but we were wondering if you could answer some questions for us?"

"Well Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Potter." Both boys shared bewildered looks. "I don't know if I can answer them yet but I'm willing to hear your questions and then we'll see what I can do."

"How did you…?" before Harry had the time to finish his question professor Lupin turned around and held a piece of parchment in front of him with neat writing next to small pictures that didn't move.

"I was trying to learn the names of my students and both of your names stuck. I have to say, based on what I have heard from the other professors that I am shocked to see both of you here together." Lupin crossed his arms over his chest and looked at them with amusement twinkling in his eyes.

Draco shrugged. "We managed to find a common interest, if you will, over the summer."

Harry nodded in agreement. "Draco found something thought provoking that he felt I should have and he came to give it to me and ended up staying for dinner. It was an _eventful_ day to say the least."

Draco chuckled and he saw out of the corner of his eye how Harry's smile grew. Professor Lupin, seemingly amused by their antics, waved them forward as he walked around the desk to sit down.

"And how, if I may ask did you find Mr. Potters address?" both boys looked confused again. "I'm a professor, I'm aware that some students' addresses aren't public knowledge."

Draco hesitated and bit his lower lip.

"I won't tell anyone." Professor Lupin assured with a smile. "I'm just curious."

"I looked Harry up in one of the genealogy books my father has in his library and found that his mother's maiden name was Evans and that she had a sister called Petunia Evans. Then it was just a question of looking up where she was now living as I assumed that Harry would be living with his only living relative." Draco said with a shrug. _Since his godfather is in prison_ , went unsaid.

Professor Lupin nodded. "That is some logic reasoning Mr. Malfoy. It's very rare for a pureblood wizard such as yourself to be that logical."

Confusion flickered across Draco's face. "Thank you, sir?"

"Now, I believe you two had some questions for me." Professor Lupin rested his hands on the desk in front of him and watched the two boys with curiosity.

Harry and Draco shared a look and then Harry took one step forward and placed Sirius diary on the desk. The professor's face went instantly pale at the sight of the three letters on the front. "I found this book at 12 Grimmauld Place. To make a long story short; we know that you were friends with him and we know that the man he was accused of betraying was Harry's father and that he supposedly killed twelve muggles and Peter Pettigrew or at least hurt Pettigrew really badly because…"

"All that was found of Pettigrew was his finger." Harry added and Draco nodded.

"But we don't think he did it and…" Draco said and saw Harry nod next to him. "We want to prove that he's innocent."

Harry looked closely at the man in front of him. His face was unreadable. The happiness had been replaced by something more similar to neutrality and for a few moments all they could hear was the sound of their respective breathing. Harry felt the hair on his neck stand.

"What makes you think that he didn't do it?" The professors voice came out rougher than before, the amused tone of voice had been replaced and several deep wrinkles were visible on his forehead.

Draco took the book from the desk and opened a page. "It could be argued that I'm too young to be making these kinds of vows and if anyone, for some unknown reason, were to read this then they would probably dismiss it as the emotional words of a child. But for as long as I shall live I will do anything in power to keep my friends safe; or should I say brothers. Because they're not just my friends, they're my family."

Harry watched the man in front of him shrugged. "So? He must have been twelve or something when he wrote that. People say that a lot can change in a year; imagine what can change in almost ten years."

Draco shook his head. "I refuse to believe that he did it. You are right professor Lupin, a lot can change in ten years, but I refuse to believe that he could have changed that much and for what reason? You knew him, did something happen in those years that could have led to Sirius changing that much? _Anything at all_?"

The tension in the room grew the louder Draco spoke and Harry saw the way his hands shook ever so slightly as they hung by his sides. His words echoed in Harry's mind and gave them a deeper meaning. They both needed for Sirius to be innocent for very different reasons. The one thing that didn't differ was how much they needed it to be true.

"Is that your question to me?" Remus Lupin laughed with a slight tone of bitterness in his voice. "I used to think a lot of things about Sirius Black and if you were to ask me when I was a teenager if I believed that he would betray me, us, the way that he did then no I would have told you that there was no way that could happen. Sadly, it did happen and the best thing to do now is wait until the dementors find him and take him back to Azkaban."

Harry flinched and his shoulders dropped. Draco's mouth was tightly clenched as he glared at the man in front of him. Neither of the boys knew what to say. The idea that Remus believed that Sirius was guilty, like the newspapers, hadn't crossed their minds and in hindsight it should have.

"He's my godfather."

Remus tilted his head to the side. "I'm aware of that Harry. I wish that there was any evidence at all that pointed to Sirius being innocent, I really do, but there's not. He was their secret keeper, he was the only one who could have betrayed them."

Draco laughed bitterly. The noise sounded strange coming from the skinny thirteen-year-old boy. "I don't believe this. He is innocent and I am going to prove it."

The blond turned around. His jaws were firmly clenched, as were his fists, when he marched out of the classroom. Professor Lupin sighed and leaned his hands against his head as he smiled sadly at Harry.

"It may not be what you wanted to hear but I needed to tell you the truth. If you're anything like your father then telling you the truth might not make a lot of difference. But I'm hoping that you'll listen to me when I tell you not to go looking for him." Remus looked him straight in the eyes. The scars on his face were clearer than the night before as were the exhaustion in his blue eyes. "The Sirius Black I knew was a good kid, and a good man, but he's not that person anymore. Can you promise me that you won't go looking for him?"

Harry nodded as he answered with a monotone voice. "Yes professor."

There was a moment of silence; a smile appeared on Remus face and he laughed. "Good boy, Harry."

Harry offered him a smile but the moment he turned around it fell from his face. His shoulders had tensed at some point even though Harry couldn't understand why. He frowned and looked deep in through when he came out of the classroom to find Malfoy leaning against the stone wall just outside.

His arms were crossed over his chest and the hair messily fell around his head as he stared at the empty space in front of him. "So, that went well."

"Does it matter if it went well?" Harry said as he stood in front of the blond in a matching stance. "So, what if Remus doesn't believe that Sirius is innocent. I know he's innocent and you know it. We're talking about a man who rebelled against his family and risked being left completely alone in this world and he still did it because it was the right thing to do; and because he needed to get away from them. I don't know what you think but that doesn't sound like a man who would betray his best friends for the very person who stands for everything he hates."

Draco, with his head tilted to the side, shrugged. "We don't know that he didn't. Anyone can rebel but sticking to your decision in spite of what everyone does to you or thinks of you, that's the hard part. Sirius had friends but what if he lost them? What if he realised how hard it is being alone in this world? Imagine if you were in his position, wouldn't you do anything to get your family back so you wouldn't have to be alone anymore?"

A heavy silence appeared between them.

"You're an asshole, Malfoy." Harry eventually commented and managed to make Draco chuckle while frowning at the same time.

"Thank you?"

"I wasn't done." Harry shook his head. "You treat people like shit sometimes and most of the time because they aren't pureblood. You're a bully who pushes people down and makes them feel like they're worthless for no apparent reason. To summarize, you are an asshole. A big asshole even."

Draco nodded and looked down on the floor while clenching his jaw. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"But you're not alone." Harry had a smile on his face when Draco looked up. "If you're going rouge like Sirius then I support you."

"Why?"

"Because, believe it or not, I do think that deep inside of you there's a good person or at least the shadow of one." Harry replied and watched as Draco chuckled. "Also, because I really want to see the look on Lucius face when he realises what's going on. I can't imagine how amazing it's going to be."

"Yeah, it'll probably be pretty great." He said with a stiff voice and nodded. "Don't expect me to like Granger or Weasley though; not even this so called good person inside of me. Both versions of me hate those two."

Harry rolled his eyes but nodded. "As long as you hate them for the right reasons."


	7. The Slytherin Prince: Part III

**Title** : Old Scars and Future Hearts

 **Word Count** : 2, 093

 **AN** : I am completely blown away by the response I got from the last chapter. I've answered all of you individually but I want to thank you again so much for following/ marking as favourite and leaving all these kind reviews. I need to address the elephant in the room aka the pairings. As of now I have no idea which pairings I'm writing for, it's just a friendship thing and we'll see if I manage to get some romance into it. I really did try to stick to my pairings but my brain won't let me make actual commitments. For those of you who like Astoria, don't worry she will appear again!

This chapter is dedicated to the wonderful _Penny_ whose kind reviews and inspiring thoughts constantly feeds my brain and enables me to get new ideas for this fic and so many others multi-chapter fics and one-shots yet to be written.

 **Chapter seven:** The Slytherin Prince, Part III

* * *

Draco let out a sigh as he entered the library later that night. It had been a tough day; there was no other way of describing it. He felt people glaring or just looking after him the entire day but paid them no attention. He was grateful that no one questioned him about what he was doing. As it turned out the name Malfoy still carried with it the demand to be respected even after he, according to his parents, had made it filthy. A frown appeared on his face and Draco sighed once more as he ran his fingers through his blond hair.

The library was almost completely quiet. Just the occasional, unmistakable, sound of someone changing the page in a book could be heard. The sun was still shining in through the great windows and easily lit up the room so that no other source of light was needed.

Draco couldn't say that he enjoyed reading that much. But there was something about the library that he did like. It was impossible to say if it was the overall atmosphere, the silence and the feeling of calm it created or if it was the smell of old books which somehow reminded him of home. It could just be the fact that he could relax in the library. He could sit down in one of the darker corners and lose the act as he dove head first into one of the many adventures that the books could offer him as an escape.

His feet unintentionally guided him to the same corner as always but a few meters away he stopped.

Harry sat next to the window with his feet in front of him and a book leaning against his thighs as he rested his head and back against the stonewall behind him. The sun shone down on his raven coloured hair and illuminated his skin. A faint smile appeared on his face and Draco couldn't help but copy him. Harry's muscles moved underneath his white t-shirt; Draco was sure that he wasn't supposed to have those what with being so skinny. Draco shook his head as if to physically get them out of his head.

"Wow, Harry James Potter in a library."

Harry flinched, a shocked expression decorated his face for a split of a second, and then he laughed. "Hermione and Ron are as shocked as you are. Hermione appears to think that I'm up to something and Ron thought that maybe there was something wrong with me. If I wanted to go to the library then obviously, I had to be sick or have a concussion or something."

Draco rolled his eyes and snorted as he sat down on the table in front of the window with his feet resting against on chair. "Well, that would explain why you're all of the sudden talking to me."

"That's funnily enough what Hermione said." Harry laughed. "She only mentioned that briefly before complaining about Ron's choice of explanations for my sudden desire to read. I walked out before they settled the argument so I sadly wasn't able to defend your newfound honour."

Draco smiled. "I think I'll survive."

"Yeah, that's what I thought too. You are many things Draco Malfoy, one of those things being a survivor." he laughed once but that didn't do anything to the tension that filled the room. It seemed to fill all the space around them and had Draco looked down on the ground while twisting the ring on his middle finger.

"Yeah, a survivor." Draco muttered mostly to himself as he moved the ring up and down his finger.

Harry frowned. The question was on the tip of his tongue. If this was anyone but Draco then he would have asked what was wrong. Harry would have asked him about his day; but this was Draco Malfoy. It was the lean blond boy who knew exactly what to do to become the centre of attention; or if he wanted to completely vanish out of sight. It was the boy who had done nothing but torment Harry and his friends for years. Harry bit his lower lip and looked down on the book.

"So, this Penny. Does he mention her a lot?"

Draco laughed so loudly that a shushing sound followed it. After waving apologetically to Madame Pince he looked back at Harry and nodded; his eyes were wide open and a huge smile had taken the place of the previous uncertain expression. "Oh yes, you can expect him to mention her a lot pretty much for the rest of the book. There's even a picture."

Harry nodded absentmindedly. "Yeah, I've seen it."

"She's pretty." Draco commented while nodding. "If she's anything like how he described her then she's equally funny and intelligent. I wouldn't mind meeting her."

Harry rolled his eyes and laughed. "What is that I hear? Draco Malfoy is being kind to an actual human being and a muggle-born on top of that. Has the world gone and turned upside down?"

"It sure feels like it." Draco said laughing slightly but eventually looked down on his ring again; a big, green M was engraved into it. "I mean how else would you explain that I'm sitting here, in the library, talking to you as if we're friends and not mortal enemies like we've been for the past three years."

Harry shrugged and swung his legs across the edge. "Maybe you grew a conscience. I'm aware that it sounds very unlikely but how else do you describe this desire to return a diary written by my godfather to me and then look for an, what we believe to be, innocent man to clear his name and make sure that he doesn't get sent back to prison for crimes he did not commit?"

"I hit my head on the way out of the train when Crabbe, the bloody moron, pushed me. Maybe I hit my head harder than I thought?" Draco felt his head as if expecting the bump from a few months earlier to still be there.

Harry rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Why do you even have to know why you're talking to me or trying to help Sirius from getting thrown back into prison? Does it matter why you're doing all of this? Isn't the most important part that you're doing what you want instead of what people expect of you?"

"Of course, it matters. If I'm going to get shunned by my entire family then I want to understand why I do all of this. I can't just do all of this because I felt like it." Draco laughed, not too loud, bitterly. "Also, am I the only one seeing the irony in you telling me to do what I want instead of what people expect me to do? I don't know what kind of world you're living in Potter but that's what you've been doing since our first year. Everything you do is to please others."

With every mocking word that came out of his mouth Harry's expression grew sourer. The glimmer in his eyes slowly became dull and his lips turned into a thin line.

"You have no idea why I do the things that I do." Harry spoke in a hushed tone. His shoes echoed through the library as they hit the floor. "You have no right to judge me because you have no idea what I've been through or what I'm dealing with."

"You fail to remember that I have met your aunt and uncle, not to mention your dreadful cousin. I know exactly what you face on a day to day basis." Draco replied as he rolled his eyes.

Harry laughed. It was a cold sound that sent shivers down Draco's spine. It was a side of the boy in front of him that he had never seen. "Do you really think that's what I deal with? That was my aunt and uncle on an exceptionally good day. Them insulting me like they did, insulting my parents, is nothing compared to the shit that I've gone through since I came to that godforsaken house."

Draco saw the lights behind him blink rapidly but Harry seemed oblivious to what he was doing. His knuckles were white and his jaw was clenched shut as he glared at Draco with all the anger he had.

Draco groaned as he pushed the chair away, took a step forward and placed one hand on Harry's shoulder. He couldn't hide the surprised expression on his face that appeared when Harry didn't immediately push him away. "Fine, okay, fine! I have no idea what you're going through and you have no idea what I'm going through. Can we just leave it at that? And shut up, you're about ten words from getting us kicked out of the library and I have never been kicked out of the library ever before. You need to breathe before you blow something up. I do not want to get detention because you keep going of like this. My day has been bad enough already what with everyone staring and calling me names behind my back."

Harry sat back down, Draco's hand hadn't left his shoulder, and he pulled his legs towards his chest. Draco backed off and sat down on the other side; their feet were barely touching and yet they both seemed obviously aware of it.

"Yeah well, welcome to my life; and the friends of a lot of my friends." Harry ironically saluted him, still with a hint of bitterness and anger in his voice. "We've been dealing with assholes glaring, insults and anything else you may have experienced today since we started school."

"Do you expect me to feel sorry for you?" Draco looked out the window and ignored the way Harry occasionally tore his eyes away from his shoes to look at him.

"No, I don't. Quite frankly Malfoy, you're an asshole. I don't expect anything from you except for snarky comments and the occasional moments when you take me by surprise and do something I didn't expected you to." Harry leaned his head onto his knees and ran his hands through his hair until he laid them to rest against his neck.

Draco felt the cold stone against the back of his head as he glanced at Harry. "What makes you think that I'll surprise you? Maybe I only have a few surprises in me and then it's all gone. I may go back to being an asshole again."

Harry rolled his eyes and kept eye contact in spite of the way Draco's intense blue eyes seemed to make an attempt at glaring a hole into his head. "Oh please, you never stopped being an asshole. I'm highly questioning if you are able to not be completely rotten to the core."

"Be careful Potter. If you keep it up you'll be able to join me and my army of assholes." Draco responded with his head tilted to the side. "What are you even doing here if I'm such an evil creature? Why not go find birds-nest and weasel? Why would you spend time with me when you can be with your friends; you haven't asked me but if you did ask I would say that sitting here is highly moronic when you can spend time with _people you actually like_."

Harry shrugged. "We have a common goal. You want to find Sirius and prove once and for all that he is innocent. Also, they probably wouldn't approve of this idea. No, I know that they wouldn't approve of this idea. Which is another reason why I'm with you; because I need to do this whether they think it's smart or not." He laughed once. "I could, by the way, ask you the same question. You like me about as much as I like you and still you're sitting here even if you'll fall from your throne because of it. Why are you still here Malfoy?"

"I've already told you." Draco scoffed. "And what are you on about? What throne have I fallen from?"

Harry smiled amusedly. "Don't tell me you didn't know that people here have been calling you the Slytherin prince? It's been a thing since las year when some students thought you were Salazar's heir."

"The Slytherin prince. That's ridiculous." Draco rolled his eyes and gave Harry a smile. His green eyes were glimmering again. Draco straightened his back and shrugged. "Well, I guess they can consider this prince officially dethroned."


	8. The Golden Boy: Part I

**Title** : Old Scars and Future Hearts

 **Word Count** : 2, 033

 **AN** : If you want to read about how Sirius met his 'Pretty Penny' then head over to chapter six of _The Marauder Tales_.

 **Chapter eight** :The Golden Boy, Part I

* * *

Harry frowned as he looked down on the barely readable notes he had dotted down in his notepad. In the middle of the page he had written the name Sirius Black. There were two lines drawn from him upwards that ended by the names Penny and Remus. Under the name, Harry had written several questions, some longer than others, and the one that caused him the most headache was the last one.

 _Did he betray my parents?_

Mr. Weasley thought so. Hermione seemed to think so. Ron probably thought so too even if he hadn't said it out loud in such a way that Harry could have no doubts about it. Most people seemed to believe that Sirius Black was the reason that his parents had died and that he was out to finish the job by killing Harry. The frown on the raven-haired boy deepened and he glanced over at Malfoy who sat a few seats away on his right side. Draco was the only one who didn't think that Sirius was guilty.

The son of Lucius Malfoy looked very different from what he looked like a few months back. At some point, he had shown up at the library wearing a leather jacket claiming that it was cool. How Draco knew about leather jackets, Harry didn't know, but it worked for him and his new style. Nowadays Draco constantly looked as if he had walked through a wind that had messed up his hair and clothes. Annoyingly that look worked better for him than the one his parents had shoved down his throat.

He didn't sit with Crabbe and Goyle anymore. Most of the time he was accompanied by Blaise Zabini who had never paid Draco much attention before. Harry always made a mental note to ask him what that was about but never remembered to when they met up in the library. Their time there was mostly spent bickering about what to do or what not to do.

* * *

"Maybe we should just try to find him?" Harry had asked late at night during one of their sessions. Draco looked at him with an expression of disbelief. "What? Don't you think that's a good idea?"

"No!" Draco said with a voice, and an expression to match, that showed how stupid that question was. "What if he did betray your parents and the evidence we find suggesting otherwise are only circumstantial? That would mean that we, two thirteen-year-olds who does not know enough magic…"

Harry smirked. "Speak for yourself."

"…have met up with a murderer and a famous death eater who betrayed your parents on top of blowing up twelve muggles and so brutally murdering a man that the only thing that was left of him was a finger." Draco continued as if Harry hadn't interrupted him in the first place.

Harry shrugged. "But we both know that he didn't do it."

"Yeah," Draco agreed. "And I don't doubt that for even a second but that doesn't mean that we should take any unnecessary risks. I think we should find this Penny and ask her about him."

The smile on Harry's face grew once more. "His pretty Penny."

Draco didn't bother fighting the smile that appeared on his face. "Yeah. Sirius is a bit hypocritical for calling James hopeless regarding how hard he fell for Lily when Sirius seems to have fallen equally hard for this girl."

At the sound of his parents' names Harry stopped moving just long enough for Draco to notice and then he laughed, in a hollow way that made shivers go down Draco's arms, and nodded. "Definitely."

* * *

Hermione definitely knew that something was up. Harry thought as she saw the way she paused in her writing and glanced back at him. He gave her a one-sided smile and just barely managed to see the way her cheeks suddenly flashed red and then she continued writing.

Ron, in spite of sitting next to him, didn't notice the exchange between the two at all. He hadn't noticed that the parchment Harry was supposed to write on was just lying underneath the notebook as Harry, badly, tried to hide what he was doing from professor Lupin. He assumed that he had failed when he saw the way his teacher looked at him. It wasn't necessarily a disapproving look but rather a worried.

"That it is for today class. I shall see you next time."

Harry had never seen Hermione move so quickly before and he thought that meant something because he had seen her move really quick. She almost managed to take all her books in one sweep and stood next to his desk when everyone else was still cleaning up.

"Harry, would you please come with me to the library?" she asked. "I could really use your help with an assignment that I need to finish today."

"You need my help?"

Hermione nodded again. More viciously this time. "Please, I would really appreciate it."

Harry frowned and Ron seemed curious as to what was going on between them because all of the sudden he looked as if he was watching a game of tennis. Harry assumed that the metaphor would be lost on his friend and that he had never seen a game of tennis; and that he wouldn't have found it interesting even if he had.

"Yeah sure Mione." Harry took his books and clutched them to his chest. He turned around and smiled at Ron. "See you later mate."

Harry and Draco caught eyes for just a few seconds. It was long enough for Draco to quizzingly raise his eyebrow and Harry to shrug. Then he had to hurry up not to lose Hermione who was walking quickly down the hallway; Harry hoped that it was easy, whatever it was that she needed help with. A puzzled expression appeared on his face as the thought entered his mind. It was odd that Hermione needed his help. There really was no other way of describing it. They entered the library and Hermione walked towards one of the more reclusive parts before sitting down and gesturing for Harry to sit on her opposite side.

"I don't need your help."

Harry let out a deep sigh. "Thank Merlin, I was getting really nervous there for a while. I couldn't make sense of it because the only thing I can help you with is flying and you don't really do that in the library."

"Not really." Hermione agreed. "So, what have you been doing with Malfoy and why are you keeping it a secret from us?"

"Wow, straight to the point." Harry commented as he leaned back in his chair with one of his arms lazily stretched across his stomach. "It's nothing important Hermione; I promise. We're just working together on this project. We were hoping that we'd get it finished quicker this way."

Harry had never before realised how intimidating Hermione could look. Her brown eyes looked shades darker when she looked at him and they were almost hypnotizing to the point where he didn't notice her mad curls the way he normally would.

"Are you doing this project for fun or is someone forcing you?" Hermione absentmindedly drew patterns on the piece of parchment she had put on the table next to her and only looked up every now and again to see his reactions.

Harry's mouth felt dry. "We're writing the project to raise our grade in history of magic. Professor Binns told us that he wanted us to work together since we were the only ones who wanted to raise our grades. So technically we aren't being forced to do the work, we're just being forced to work together."

"Really?"

"Really."

Hermione hummed. It was hard to tell if she bought the lie or not. Her ability to look neutral, or nonaffected, in some situations was almost as good as his own. After a moment of silence, she bit her lower lip and dropped the quill in favour of fidgeting with her fingers while her eyes darted back and forth between the parchment and Harry.

"You're not doing anything dangerous are you Harry?" her tone of voice made Harry frown. But only for a short while until he forced himself to smile.

"Me? Doing something dangerous?" he laughed but only managed to lure out a tiny smile from Hermione who also rolled her eyes in a way that made Harry belief that they would get stuck that way. "I would never do something that was potentially dangerous for me or other people. You know that."

She leaned over and playfully hit his arm causing Harry to let out a surprised yelp which quickly turned into laughter.

"You are not funny." she told him and sat back down again. "You have been doing dangerous things since we were eleven years old. You are going to be the reason that my hair turns grey long before I even turn thirty. And that's just based on what you do here."

The smile fell from her face and Harry suddenly found it harder to swallow. He laughed nervously and rubbed his neck as he looked away from Hermione. A shiver went down his spine and Harry wasn't sure if it was because of the sudden tension in the room or because his faulty mind liked to remind him of things that he would rather forget.

"I'm sorry."

Harry looked up from the spot on the able where his eyes had gotten stuck as his mind took an unnecessary trip down memory lane. "Why are you sorry? There is nothing to be sorry about. Everything is fine." He laughed. "Well, everything is fine if you don't count the fact that I still have to finish my project in history of magic with that pompous, blond git we all love and knows as the prince of Slytherin."

Hermione's eyes twinkled with amusement. "I heard a rumour saying that he had officially been dethroned."

"Really?" Harry said, hoping that he was better at feigning surprise than he was at pretending to be fine, and laughed. "So, who's the new prince of Slytherin? And if they haven't found one yet when can we start nominating people? I'd like to think that I would be good for the job."

"I'd like to think that Theo Nott would be a good pick for the job. He seems very diplomatic for a Slytherin. But you on the other hand…" Hermione shook her head while she pointed at him. "You are not going to be the new prince of Slytherin."

Harry laughed and rolled his eyes. "What makes you think that? Are you implying that I have some disadvantage that prevents me from being chosen, and if that is the case then what disadvantage are you referring to, or are you just saying that I would be really shitty at the job because I'm not that fond of that particular house?"

"You're so silly sometimes." Hermione commented with a smile. "I'm saying all of that and more."

"More? What more is there?"

"You're the golden boy." Hermione stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You would have to quit being the golden boy and start being the prince of Slytherin and people would get really upset and you would just make things complicated."

"Golden boy?" Harry laughed out loud at the statement the moment he said it. "I sound like a dog. That is amazing. Who came up with that one and has someone been chosen to be the golden girl yet?"

"I think that spot is currently available for the taking." Hermione said nodding her head. "Assuming that it does exist. For some reason, there is no one called the Slytherin Princess so I'm assuming that no one thought about naming someone the golden girl."

"That is scandalous." Harry commented with an upset tone in his voice and a smile on his face. "Would you, as my best friend and the most brilliant person that I know, like to be my golden girl, Hermione?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, laughed, but never the less took his outstretched hand. "I would like that very much."


	9. The Golden Boy: Part II

**Title** : Old Scars and Future Hearts

 **AN** : I was asked a really good question about the dementors and that has all happened like it did in the book but the aftermath changed since Draco didn't bully Harry about it.

 **Word Count** : 2, 172

 **Chapter nine** : The Golden Boy, Part II

* * *

Harry understood pretty quickly why Hermione retreated to the library to get something done and he found himself doing the same a lot of the time. When he wasn't discussing, or somewhat arguing with Draco, Harry sat with his nose bent over the book about his family history. He had so far only read about his parents and paternal grandparents. He could look at the pictures of Euphemia, Fleamont and James for hours. The resemblance between him and his father truly was uncanny. That became even clearer to him when he saw the photos of James as a teenager. But the eyes, they reminded him only of his mother.

He thought about them more often and occasionally he would even dream about them. It wasn't like when he was a child and woke up with the sound of his mother screaming in his head. It was more images that flashed through his mind with whispering voices of people calling for him and telling him that they loved him. Draco's expressions of disbelief a few hours earlier became easier to deal with after a night of dreams like that. It also made it easier to deal with Hermione offering to help with their so called project and Draco looking at her, and Harry, with murder in his eyes.

* * *

"You sent her an owl?" There was no missing the look of disbelief on Draco's face. It was an expression that could have made Harry feel self-conscious if he wasn't so used to it. "And you asked her to meet us when we go to Hogsmeade? And she agreed?"

Harry nodded.

"What made you think that was a good idea?" Draco asked without making any attempts to hide the distressed tone in his voice.

"We're not getting anywhere." Harry said from his leaned back position against the wall of the library. "We can sit around here and read as much as we want but we won't be getting any real answers unless we talk to someone who knew him and that's why I send an owl to Penny and asked her to meet us."

Harry ran his hand through his hair and felt a warmth spread inside his chest. Ever since he saw his father doing that in one of the many photos there was of him he had done whatever he could to get used to the habit. Sadly, it didn't come as natural to him as it had to James.

"Okay genius." Draco commented from where he sat around the round table. His hair was messy as per usual and somehow the last few months it seemed that he had lost weight. He looked tired most of the time and Harry had been close to asking if he was okay more times than he wanted to admit. "You're right. But there's one thing that you've missed in your brilliant plan."

"What's that?"

Draco smirked at him. "You don't have permission to go to Hogsmeade. At least you didn't the last time I checked."

Harry mentally cursed but managed to smile. "So, you'll talk to her and I stay back here. Or maybe I should just talk to the twins… I'm sure they can get me out of the school unnoticed somehow."

"Or I can go with him." A familiar voice called out before walking out from behind a bookshelf. Harry assumed that Hermione saw the look of shock and a tiny hint of fear in his face but chose not to say anything. "I'm assuming that this has to do with the project you two are doing for professor Binns."

Draco looked at Harry. Only the slightly raised eyebrow indicated confusion and with his back against Hermione there were no risk of her noticing. He had known that they were claiming to be working on a project but the involvement of professor Binns was new.

For a moment Harry was gobsmacked and then he nodded. "How long have you been standing there?"

"I heard Draco telling you that you didn't have permission to go to Hogsmeade and then you told him that he should go meet someone by himself and you'll stay back here." Her neutral expression turned into one of disapproval. "Then I heard you talking about going to the twins and finding another way to leave the castle. That would be a very stupid idea seeing as there is a murder on the loose and he's looking for you. So, I figured I'd offer my services and talk to whoever you need to talk to with _Draco_."

Harry looked at Draco who gave him an expression that said only three words; don't you dare. But Harry saw, based on the way Hermione looked at him that she was not going to let this go. If he told her that she couldn't go with Draco then she might stay with him to make sure that he didn't talk to the twins about getting into Hogsmeade.

He nodded after being stared down by the two most intense people he had ever met. "Sure Hermione, we'd really appreciate your help. Why don't you sit down and we'll fill you in on what we want to know?"

Hermione's smile grew and Harry couldn't help but laugh as she sat down next to Draco who looked at her with murder in his eyes. Harry didn't know if she noticed the way the blond looked at her or if she was just ignoring him the way Harry did whenever Draco looked at him with almost the same glare.

* * *

The lies easily flew from his mouth and occasionally Harry caught Draco looking at him like the blond didn't know who he was anymore. He lied just as easily that same night when Hermione went to bed and Harry stayed back in the common room to read. It probably helped that he only lied a little bit and that he did try to read but it was hard to completely focus with the constant noises and sounds. Then he heard the sound of the Weasley-twins and all attempts at reading was forgotten.

"Fred, George…" he called out the moment they appeared in sight.

"Harry Potter, have you…" They walked next to each other, both wearing almost identical smiles. But he could still see the difference and that they finished each other sentences didn't faze him one bit. Fred spoke first as he sat down on the couch not far from the chair with George on his left side.

"…been waiting for us?" George asked and finished the sentence.

Harry nodded and put the book on the table in front of him. "I have a hypothetical question. Say if a student didn't have permission to go to Hogsmeade but really needed to get there anyway. What would be the best way for that student to do that without being detected and given detention for the rest of their life?"

"Are you planning on breaking the rules again little Harry?" Fred asked but waited for no reply as he stood. "Well, you have come to the exactly right people. If you would be so kind to come with us so that we can show you exactly how you can get to Hogsmeade without being detected."

Harry laughed but followed the twins as they left the couch and, side by side, left the common room. Eventually they stopped in a room without any people in it and the twins turned around to look at him.

"So, what did you have to show me?" Harry asked with his arms crossed over his chest. George was the one to show him an old parchment. One that didn't look like much and Harry didn't know whether to laugh or to be angry. "How is an old parchment supposed to help me get to Hogsmeade undetected?"

"What stupid questions you ask." Fred said with a smirk and picked up his wand. "Watch and remember these very important words, Mr. Harry Potter. I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Harry's eyes widened in size and his mouth dropped as ink appeared on the parchment. It said Marauders Map in big letters but the really impressive part was shown when Fred opened the map. Tiny feet, accompanied by names walked around. Harry could see that Hermione wasn't moving. On another part of the map he could see Draco being surrounded by Flint, Goyle and Crabbe. A sight that made him frown.

"This gives the word map a completely new meaning." Harry said with a laugh. "Is this really what is happening right now? Where did you find it?"

"We snatched it from Filch a few years ago." George nodded and looked at it with an awe-struck expression. "This map is the reason that we haven't been caught for everything we've done. We are in debt to the truly amazing gentlemen who invented it. It hurts to give you this beautiful piece of magic but you need it more than we do. We already know these secret tunnels like the back of our hands."

"Who invented it?" Harry asked as was handed the map. He looked at the people walking around with a smile on his face.

Dumbledore was pacing back and forth in his office. Harry couldn't help but wonder what was bothering him this late at night. Draco was still surrounded by the other Slytherin's. But the really shocking thing came when Harry turned back to look at the Gryffindor common room and saw a strange name next to Ron.

"You need to be more attentive." Fred commented with a chuckle and earned Harry's full attention. He coughed before speaking. "Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs is proud to present the Marauders map. You're lucky we gave you the password. These boys can throw some wicked insults to anyone who tries to crack the code."

"Padfoot?" Harry couldn't help but comment. The twins quizzingly looked at him.

"Do you know him?" George asked.

Harry shook his head. "I wouldn't say that I know him, no. I just remember the name from somewhere. I might have read about them. Hey, thank you very much for this, boys. And if you see Hermione tomorrow then please tell her that…"

"You have not spoken to us about getting to Hogsmeade even if you don't have a permission. You are probably in the library studying." Fred finished the sentence for him and winked. "We got you Harry."

Harry laughed. "Thanks, I really appreciate it."

"As you should. When you're done with it just tap it with your wand and say mischief managed otherwise anyone will be able to read it." George commented with a smirk. "We'll let you stay here and make yourself familiar with it. We need to get our beauty sleep…"

"Well, more like our pranking sleep. It's hard work putting out traps for other people to fall into." Fred added with a laugh. "Goodnight Harry and good luck tomorrow. Don't get caught and please don't get killed. Trelawny would be unbearable for the rest of the year if she was actually right about her predictions for once."

Harry laughed for a few moments before sitting down with his back against the wall. He gently touched the sides of the maps with his fingertips and couldn't help but feel in awe of the creation in front of him. The map in itself was amazing and even Harry admired the magic that it must have taken to create. But what amazed him even more was that Padfoot – Sirius – had created this map with three other people. Harry assumed James, Remus and _Peter_.

Harry frowned at the map until he saw the Gryffindor common room. Everyone appeared to have gone to bed, except for Harry, Dean Thomas was written on a bed with a pair of feet stomping next to it, Seamus Finnigan, Neville Longbottom and then Ronald Weasley looked the exact same way. What caught Harry's attention was a name that he knew was not supposed to be there. It was not supposed to be on the map at all.

"That's insane." He mumbled to himself and leaned his head onto the palm of his hand. "He's dead. The map must be broken. I should just stop thinking about it. He can't be alive. That's just impossible."

He whispered mischief managed and folded the map into its original position before putting it in his pocket. After mentally having repeated that the map was broken and Peter was dead a few times Harry almost believed himself.

But that didn't stop him from looking at the place next to Ron's bed where Peter Pettigrew was supposed to be. Harry laughed at the sight before him. It was Scabbers looking more tired now than ever because of Crookshanks seemingly endless desire to kill him. The conflict between the pets had created a conflict between the owners too but the owners didn't look nearly as exhausted as poor Scabbers.

Harry went to bed with a smile. The map was obviously broken.


	10. The Golden Boy: Part III

**Title** : Old Scars and Future Hearts

 **AN** : This one is dedicated to Penny (I do a lot of dedications recently because you inspire me so much). You have waited long enough for this woman to make an entrance and I hope that you'll be happy with the way I introduced her. I promise you that she will return again soon both in this story and in others.

Random information but it may be good to know; Harry, in this version, have not seen Sirius in his animagus form. Also, I mention the Disillusionment Charm. I'm aware that it's used to make an object or a person completely invisible for a certain period of time but I tweaked it a little bit for the purpose of this chapter. I will go into how and why further into the story!

 **Word Count** : 3, 398

 **Chapter ten** : The Golden Boy, Part III

* * *

"So, how are you planning on getting to Hogsmeade unnoticed?" Draco asked as he paced the floor in front of thick wooden doors that led out of the school. "And if you don't have a plan already then I suggest you get one pretty quickly because I am not doing this without you."

Harry leaned casually against the stonewall with his arms crossed over his chest. "I talked to the twins yesterday. I'm good. I know exactly how to get there without being seen."

Draco stopped for a brief moment only to roll his eyes before continuing his maddening walk. "You sound very confident. I almost believe you." He stopped again, his hands rested against his hips and he looked up at the roof. "What are we going to do about Hermione?"

" _Hermione_?" Harry couldn't help but comment. "Are you already on first name basis with her Draco?"

"Shut up Potter," Draco snarled but Harry only laughed. "She offered to help with this _project_ of ours. I don't see any of my _friends_ lining up to help us. I may not like her but I can call her by her first name."

Harry hummed thoughtfully. When Draco's friends had been mentioned he started thinking about the map. He could still see the image of Draco being surrounded by the people that had previously looked up to him like he was some kind of hero. He didn't know what had happened the day before but the map made it look like they were surrounding him much like a group of predators would with its victim.

"Nice lying." Draco commented and woke Harry from his thoughts. The blond raised an eyebrow when he saw the confused expression on Harry's face. "I'm talking about when you lied to Hermione. I'm still hoping that I can get rid of her before the meeting."

Harry nodded. "I'm sure that Penny is brilliant at the legal stuff but we're not really that interested in the legal system per say."

"Speak for yourself." Draco scoffed. Harry was about to ask if he was interested in legal stuff when he saw Draco's posture straighten out. "There she is."

Hermione had pushed her unruly, curly hair back in a ponytail which made it look even bigger than normal. She wore normal jeans and a t-shirt underneath her winter jacket with a high collar. Her eyes lightened up when she saw Harry and she released a deep breath. "Remind me again what I was supposed to ask her."

"Are you telling me that the great Hermione Granger doesn't remember." Draco chuckled. "That must be the first time."

Harry glanced at him for a brief moment before smiling at Hermione. He could still feel Draco looking at him. "Just remember to ask her about the history of the legal system. We want to know how trials have changed throughout history and about important cases that may have changed the system. We're particularly interested if the wizarding community values trials higher or lower than the muggles."

Hermione nodded and muttered okay while looking as if she was mentally making notes. After a moment, she looked at Harry again. "And you're staying here. Right?"

Harry batted his long eyelashes, flashed her an innocent looking smile and hoped that his green eyes would affect Hermione the same way that it seemed to affect many adults. "Of course, Hermione I promise that if I do leave through this door then it won't be to go to Hogsmeade."

"Okay Harry." She commented with a smile. It quickly turned into a frown when she turned to look at Draco. "Are you coming?"

She walked out of the entrance before Draco who shared a final smile with Harry and mouthed that they would see each other later before following her outside. Harry stood there for a moment and watched most of the students leave the school. He shared a wink with Fred and George whom were involved in a lively discussion with Lee.

The moment the coast was clear Harry hurried towards his dormitory. He changed his clothes and put on a grey hoodie that easily covered the raven-coloured hair and a pair of dark blue jeans. Harry took the cloak of invisibility and the then the map. When he touched the map, which had been locked away, he glanced at the side next to Ron's bed. Scabbers was nowhere to be seen and Harry shrugged. The map must have been broken. There was no chance that a dead person could appear on a map that had been made by four teenagers. Especially not since the person didn't even die at Hogwarts.

"I must have been mistaken." Harry commented before walking out of the dormitory with the invisibility cloak and the map carefully hidden from view.

Once he came to an empty part of the castle, which was easier now that most students had left, Harry opened the map and searched for the closest way to Hogsmeade. Once he found it, Harry put the cloak over himself and hurried in that direction. He didn't know what he expected Hogsmeade to be like but what he saw didn't disappoint him. Harry couldn't wait to go there when he actually had permission. He assumed that the experience would be much more fun when he wasn't hidden underneath the invisibility cloak.

He almost expected to see Hermione walking next to Draco but was shocked to see him standing alone by the entrance into Three Broomsticks Inn. He glanced around him but didn't see a trace of the brunette. When he saw a group of students leave a store named Zonko's Joke Shop he walked amongst them and swiftly removed the cloak of invisibility and pushed it down the backpack he had brought with him. Harry kept his head down until he reached Draco.

"What did you do to Hermione?" he whispered as he nudged Draco's shoulder.

"I was just being my normal nauseating self." Draco replied easily and did his best to hide the shocked expression on his face. "I really want to ask you how you managed to get here…"

"Did you doubt me Draco? I'm wounded." Harry said jokingly with one hand against his chest.

"But we don't have time to talk about that right now." Draco continued like he hadn't heard what Harry said. "Are you ready to meet Penny?"

"After you."

Harry looked up to scan the room. It didn't take long until they saw Penny. She had pitch black hair with red and gold highlights which she had pushed back into a ponytail to keep it away from her eyes. When they walked inside her head was bent down over a book and she leaned on the palm of her hand. She went between frowning to smiling and nodding. Her dark brown eyes glimmered and occasionally they could see her laughing out loud at something that she had read. She was just like Sirius had described her. Unforgivingly herself with the highlights and the gold piercing in her nose. Two cups of tea stood on the table in front of her and smoke came from both.

"Penny?" Draco took the lead. Even the normally cold and hesitant boy sounded like he was affected by whatever force radiated from the smiling woman.

"Guilty as charged." She replied and laughed at her own joke but only once before she stopped and glanced at something next to her. "I'm sorry Flea."

"Flea?" Harry looked over the table as he sat down next to Draco. A big, black dog with grey eyes stared back at him. "How did you get a dog in here?"

"Asks the person who came to Hogsmeade without permission." Draco commented and caused Penny to laugh.

"It wasn't that hard getting him inside. He's very obedient. He's got Madam Rosmerta wrapped around his paw." Penny said while glancing at the dog. She turned back to look at Harry within a few seconds. "So, you managed to get here without permission. You are definitely your father's son. James would have done the same if Euphemia and Fleamont for some reason decided not to give him permission. The odds of that ever happening were pretty low though."

When Penny laughed for the second time it sounded almost hollow. Harry saw the dog put his head on her lap and Penny absently began stroking its head. In that moment, he couldn't tell if the dog was comforting Penny or if she was comforting the dog. He felt Draco looking at him from the corner of his eye but stayed silent.

So many questions moved inside of his head. "Did you know my dad?"

Penny nodded and that familiar smile flashed across her face once more as a chuckle escaped her lips.

"Yeah, I came to Hogwarts when I was thirteen and I met your dad, Sirius, Remus and…" Penny's lips turned into a thin line. "Peter on my first day. I just walked straight up to them and introduced myself. You look a lot like him you know."

There was no missing the sadness that came with the last sentence and Harry almost believed that he heard the dog whine when it moved so that more of its body laid in Penny's lap. Both paws laid stretched out and the grey eyes stared into the distance while the ears were pointing in their direction.

"We want to ask you about Sirius." Draco commented after a moment of silence. "We found a diary that he wrote and we don't think that he betrayed James and Lily."

Penny looked between the two boys. Her eyes eventually staying on Harry. "You told me that in your letter. I have to admit that hearing it said out loud is completely different from reading it. For a long time, I felt like I was the only one." An empty laughter escaped her.

For a moment Harry could almost see the shadow of the young woman she had been when Sirius was deemed guilty for betraying his parents and being thrown into Azkaban without as much as a trial. He shook his head. "You're not the only one. _We_ think that he's innocent."

"Can I ask you why you think that?"

Draco opened and closed his mouth several times. "It doesn't… it doesn't add up." He answered unsurely. He looked at Harry for support who nodded for him to continue. "We looked into it and we know that Sirius was their secret keeper so technically he was the only one who could have betrayed them but it doesn't make any sense for him to do that. He and James weren't friends, they were more like brothers. Professor Lupin may think that he's guilty…"

"Remus Lupin?" When the boys nodded Penny sighed. "He's not the only one who thinks that Sirius is guilty. I can't tell you how many times I've argued with Dumbledore over the years."

"Dumbledore?"

Penny nodded. Harry could almost see her brown eyes turn a shade darker and there was a snarl in her voice that reminded him of Draco when he was angry. "I've been asking him to get Sirius a trial for years. Every time he brings up the secret keeper thing. I understand why that would make Sirius look guilty but that the circumstances are all against him doesn't mean that he shouldn't be given a trial."

"Are you angry with Remus too?"

Penny shook his head. "That's complicated. I was angry at first but I can't be anymore."

Harry frowned. "Why?"

"Because imagine if it comes out that Sirius is innocent. Imagine the guilt Remus would feel when he found out." A shiver travelled down her spine and Penny scrunched her face together. "At this point I think he needs to believe that Sirius is guilty."

"Do you think they'll be friends when it comes out that he's innocent?" Harry asked.

Penny smiled again and a wave of content radiated from her like actual beams from the sun. "I haven't heard anyone say that sentence before… _when it comes out that he's innocent_ …"

The smile fell from her face again. "I think you should lay low now Harry."

"Why?"

"Because McGonagall just walked inside and I heard her mention Sirius name." Penny must have seen their confused expressions. "I'll explain that later."

"What is she saying?"

Penny looked straight at the older woman with no emotions in her face. There was a certain boldness in the way she sat and her general behaviour. It could only be described as a silent toughness that Harry was sure had drawn Sirius in when he first met Penny. It became clear that underneath the kind exterior there was a brave woman who didn't mind fighting for the people she loved, for the values that she held and didn't hesitate to deal with conflicts when people came looking for them.

"She is talking about the dementors, Sirius being on the loose, him betraying James, you being his godson and that they need to do what's best for you…"

Harry clenched his fists as the rage grew inside of him. He couldn't help but repeat the sentence Penny had said. _Do what's best for him_. He had always known in the back of his mind that's what made all adults around him do what they did. With the exception of Petunia and Vernon of course. But never had it been so blatantly obvious that what he wanted and what he needed was never taken into consideration. They claimed to act in his best interest but never bothered to talk to him about it.

Someone gasped in surprise when their spoon flew from the table to the floor next to Harry. A blushing red-headed girl looked up at Penny with an apologetic frown. "I'm sorry, I don't know what happened."

Draco rudely waved her away and leaned down so that he could see Harry's face. "What's going on?"

"It's just bullshit." A shriek was heard just as Harry answered and he could barely hear the sound of someone complaining about burning themselves on their tea. Draco looked surprisingly nervous and the dog in Penny's lap, _Flea_ , squirmed. "They have never done anything that's good for me. They left me with my aunt and uncle who hate magic more than anything in the entire world. They have no idea what I've been dealing with my entire life and now that I have my chance at finding someone who cares they just want to take that away from me."

Penny glanced at the spot where McGonagall and the other had been standing just minutes earlier. It seemed that they didn't think that the havoc going on was anything to focus on because they were no longer there. "I think we need to leave right now."

"I agree." Draco pushed Harry who almost fell out of the booth before composing himself.

Penny and the black dog led the way and were never far away. Harry could at any time reach his hand out and take a hold of Penny's shoulder. She moved gracefully without being noticed. Even more so when they came out from Three Broomsticks. Harry was vaguely aware of Draco holding one hand on his shoulder as he followed Penny away from the groups of people who were interested by the sudden mayhem that had struck Three Broomsticks.

Harry's hands were still shaking when they stopped. He wanted to scream out loud. It had never occurred to him like in that moment how controlled he was. Everything in his life had been decided by some person, sometimes a group of people, who never bothered talking to him and asking what he wanted. He paced the empty street, just a few steps back and forth, until Penny stood in front of him. She placed her hands on either shoulder.

"You need to relax." It wasn't an order. Her voice was too caring to sound anything like that. "I'm going to hug you. Okay?" Harry nodded and Penny pulled him in for a hug. For every second his breathing became calmer and the anger slowly seeped out of him. "Have you ever heard of the Disillusionment Charm?"

Harry frowned but shook his head. "That was a random question."

Penny laughed and took a step back. "Not as random as you may think. You asked me how I got Flea into Three Broomsticks without anyone noticing. I put a type of Disillusionment Charm on him so that he would mix in with the interior."

"But I could see him?"

Draco coughed. "We could see him."

"Yeah, and there's a really good reason for that." Penny's smile grew. "But that's for me to know and you to find out later."

Harry nodded. "I was able to get here because of the map."

"The map?" Draco looked at him like he was stupid but Penny on the other hand didn't even bother to hide the excitement in her voice.

"You found the map?" she exclaimed with her hands against her face. The only one who was as excited as Penny was the dog whose tail wagged back and forth in a rapid manner. "I never used it myself because it was their creation but I knew that they had made some kind of map. Sirius talked about it all the time. They were so upset when they lost it."

"I can imagine." Harry thought about bringing the map up but decided against it. "It seems to be broken though."

Penny frowned. "Why do you think that?"

"Because the map showed me Peter Pettigrew last night when I first got it. I know that he's dead but I had to check and where _Peter_ was supposed to be I only saw a rat. Well, my friends rat. It's his pet."

Draco scoffed. "Weasley."

A barely audible growl came from the dog as he sat in front of Penny and he showed some of the white, sharp teeth. Penny ran a hand through her hair as she released it from the ponytail and frowned at a spot on the ground. "That's odd. Can I ask you how old the rat is?"

"He must be about twelve years." Harry shrugged. "Why do you ask?"

Penny laughed. An uncertain sound left her lips and there was a hint of curiosity in her brown eyes. "That's a long time for a rat."

Harry glanced at Draco who were observing Penny the way he would a question on an exam. The blond eventually broke the silence. "We want to find Sirius and prove that he's innocent. Do you think that's a good idea? We know that he may be really far away but we still need to try."

Penny laughed again. Subconsciously she stretched down to scratch the dogs head.

"He's probably closer than you think. He never could stay far away from you Harry. He loves you and would do anything to keep you safe." She paused and looked at Draco. "Sadly, I have no idea where to start and I don't think that you should do this yourselves."

"Will you help?"

"Will I help." Penny repeated to herself. She messed up his hair and then she took one step backwards. "Of course! We'll stay in touch and talk soon again, okay? I have an idea on where to start so don't do anything until I write you."

"How soon will that be?" Harry couldn't help but ask.

"I have a feeling that it'll be very soon." Penny said and winked. Before Harry had the time to react Flea had jumped against his chest and licked his cheek. Penny laughed at the same time as Draco did. "I think he likes you Harry."

Harry couldn't help but smile as he scratched the dog behind its ear. "I like him too. I'll see you soon Flea. Bye Penny!"

The woman gave him one last smile and waved. "Bye."

Harry could have sworn that the dog looked happy but the moment he ran to join Penny who was walking away from them the thought left his mind. Harry turned to Draco who's smile made him look almost content. "This was good idea."

"Yes Potter, this was a very good idea." Draco rolled his eyes while smiling. "Now, how are you planning on getting back to Hogwarts undetected?"

Harry winked at him. "I think I'll manage."


	11. Band-Aid for the Soul

**Title** : Old Scars and Future Hearts

 **Word Count** : 2, 317

 **Chapter eleven** : Band-Aid for the Soul

* * *

"Where are we going?"

Harry didn't like the way her voice sounded. There was something different about it but Harry couldn't tell exactly what it was. He glanced at his best friend whom made a big deal out of not looking him in the eyes and who couldn't seem to decide if she wanted her hair up or down. Her hands shook, her fingers twitched and every time he came in too close proximity she took a step to the side regardless if that meant walking into someone or not.

* * *

"What did you tell her Malfoy?"

Draco shrugged for what felt like the tenth time and Harry felt the same rush of anger going through his body. "I didn't tell her anything she or you didn't already know."

"Enlighten me about what I already know." Harry said with a voice so thick of sarcasm that one could cut through it with a knife.

Draco's familiar smirk appeared on his face. "That's good Potter, you almost sounded like…"

"Talk!"

"I told her that she was a textbook example of the stereotypical girl that she didn't want to be. I said that there is nothing remarkable about her, her fear of rejection and need for validation makes me want to kill myself and that the guy she fancies would never go for her because she is the most annoying person to ever set foot in this school." Draco didn't smile when he spoke but still, Harry had never felt such an immense desire to hit someone in the face before. "I even managed to guess who she fancied but that's a story for another time."

Just thinking about it made Harry's blood boil and when he saw Hermione he couldn't help but feel guilty and sad. When he and Ron spoke she only answered with one or two words and for most part of the time she didn't dare look him in the eyes. It didn't matter that Harry tried to move so that he could capture her eyes.

* * *

"We are going to the kitchen." He answered after a few moments of silence as they stopped before the painting with a bowl of fruit. While he spoke, he began tickling the pear which eventually turned into a green doorknob. "We spend way too little time together outside of the common room and the library."

"So, you figured that we should spend time together in the kitchen?" Hermione asked quizzingly but never the less followed him inside. Her eyes went from one side of the room to the other. She wasn't able to keep the look of amazement away. "We're not bothering anyone, are we?"

"We are definitely not bothering anyone and I promise to put things back, scouts honour. And we are here because I am going to bake for you and we are going to talk." _And because I find it calming to bake_ , was what Harry wanted to say but didn't. Instead he gestured towards a chair that was placed on the other end of a working station. "So please, sit down for me golden girl?"

He saw the flicker of a smile on her face as she sat down on the opposite side and watched him move back and forth between the different stations as he gathered everything he needed. "You were not a scout Harry Potter."

"That's hardly the point." Harry answered and winked at her.

Hermione coughed as she looked down on the floor. Only when her cheeks had taken their normal colour did she look back up at Harry who acted oblivious to the entire thing. "So, why haven't you told us that you knew how to bake?"

"Bake, make dinner… I'm good in a kitchen overall, at least at making easy things that require little ingredients," Harry said with a shrug as he measured up the exact amount of flour that he needed. "It's not like I was actively trying to hide it from you but here I never have to cook for myself and when I'm home during the summers you never come to visit me; I always go to you."

The tension thickened and Harry mentally cursed himself when he saw the somewhat hurt expression on Hermione's face. "It's not like I want you guys to come spend the summer with me anyway so don't get me wrong. I was just saying that because the only way that you could have found out was if you caught me in action and that only happens when I'm with the Dursleys."

Although the girl looked slightly less disappointed there was still a few wrinkles left on her forehead that had yet to dissolve. "So," she was still making a big deal out of not looking him in the eyes. Harry hadn't realised how much he liked seeing her eyes until she started not facing him. "What are you making?"

Harry's smile grew. "It's something I invented myself over the course of a few years. I used to call them angel cookies but I'm thinking about changing the name to band-aids for the soul."

"Over the course of a few year?" Hermione repeated with a smile. "Should I be concerned for my health?"

"No," Harry rolled his eyes albeit still looking amused. "It took me years because I was rarely able to cook since the Dursley's rarely left me alone to roam the house. And when I did get the chance I couldn't use too many kinds of ingredients or too much of it so I had to make half a batch and then hope that they turned out good."

Harry felt his hands shaking as the words left his mouth. He was now the one to avoid her eyes and the smile on his face were all of the sudden not to stable anymore. He remembered the feelings of horror that he was going to get caught and the motivation in the form of his loud stomach that reminded him that he hadn't eaten in days. In his mind, he knew that cookies weren't the best thing to eat but all his little brain could think about was sugar and the best way to get sugar in his system was through cookies. At least that's what he thought at the time.

"Thanks for telling me." Hermione said in a low tone which forced Harry to look up at her. "Have you talked to Ron about any of this?"

"Not really," Harry shook his head. "But at the end of the last semester he gave me a cream to cover up bruises and these little pills that he told me worked like food and that you wouldn't get hungry as quickly if you took one of them. I think he knows more than he tells me."

"We both do." Hermione tilted her head to the side and gave him a sad smile. "We don't talk about this because we feel that you should be the one to bring it up but we can both guess what's going on behind closed doors."

Harry hummed as he continued working by putting in the remaining ingredients into the bowl and began mixing them together to create a dough. His breathing was laboured and he could feel pearls of sweat running down his neck. He assumed that those weren't because it was so physically exhausting to knead the dough. Harry didn't just dislike talking about himself, he hated it, but if he could get Hermione to talk to him then he would just have to suck it up and do it anyway.

"How did Draco do the other day?"

"He said it went fine but you know what he's like. I don't think that fine has the same meaning in his vocabulary as it does mine." He said with a wink as he hoped to lure her to laugh but she didn't. "I was actually going to ask you why you weren't there with him?"

"He didn't tell you?" Harry shook his head and Hermione sighed. "Long story short, he did a very muggle thing and psychoanalysed me like the amateurish thirteen-year-old boy that he is and somehow ended up hitting home by telling me everything that would hurt me the most."

"You shouldn't listen to him. He's full of shit sometimes." _Not completely without reason_ Harry thought to himself but didn't say out loud. He put the cookies inside the stove and began the cleaning up. "Whatever he told you I can guarantee you that none of it's true. You're an amazing person and a great friend. You're a brilliant witch and overall one of the most intelligent people that I have ever met. You are going to be something great one day Hermione Granger."

Hermione's cheeks turned a shade pinker. "Do you really think so?"

"I don't think so, I know so." Harry looked at her while washing his hands. "We should spend more time alone, don't you think? The next time we can be outside instead of in the kitchen or we could even to to the library if you want to. I've grown to like that place in the past few months."

Hermione laughed. "Yeah, I've noticed. I've also noticed that you've taken up reading and studying like you've never done before. Where did you find that book anyway?"

"I didn't find the book. Draco found it in a hidden section somewhere in Flourish and Blotts," Harry said as he took the book out from the pocket of his robe where he always carried it around. "This book has all the information about my family. It's amazing."

It didn't look nearly as worn out as Hermione's books did but the front page was paler than it had been when he bought it and the first hundred pages, the ones that he had read most often, also looked a bit older than the rest of the book.

"Draco found it? You spent time with Draco during the summer?" Hermione asked with one of her eyebrows raised.

Harry shrugged as he tried his best to look innocent. The moment the words had left his mouth he knew that Hermione would pick up on them. The only thing he could do now was lie. Luckily, he never struggled in that department. He batted his dark eyelashes, pouted his lips and shrugged.

"I saw him when I went to buy my books this summer." Harry replied. "I met him when he was there with his mother to do the same."

Hermione's frown deepened. "And since you two are so good friends you decided that you were going to talk to him and he decided that he was going to show you a hidden part of the store so that you could find a book about your family. Forgive me for finding that a bit hard to believe." She crossed her arms over her chest. "What are you and Draco really working on Harry and no lies this time."

"I told you, we're working on a project to increase our grades." Harry replied without as much as stuttering.

"I think that you're lying about that too." Hermione didn't sound angry when she said that but rather disappointed. "Just like you liked about not going to Hogsmeade."

Harry fidgeted with his fingers but didn't look away from her. "How do you know if I was at Hogsmeade?"

"Because I saw you or at least a glimpse pf you." Hermione shrugged and looked down on the ground with an intensity that made it look as if she had found something much more interesting there. "I have no idea how you got there but I saw you when you walked out of Three Broomsticks with Draco and some woman."

"Did you tell anyone?"

Hermione shook her head. "I wanted to ask you why you were there first but I couldn't convince myself to confront you about it. Harry, what were you thinking when you went there yesterday? You have a killer following you, a crazy murderer who wants to see you dead, and you go to Hogsmeade with Draco Malfoy none the less. What was so important that you had to be there?"

Before Harry opened his mouth but didn't say anything when he was Hermione raising a finger. "And don't tell me your grade in history because I will walk straight out of this kitchen and I won't talk to you until you're ready to tell me the truth."

Harry sighed and frowned. Hermione, though being his best friend, had a strict idea of what was right and what was wrong. She was the friend who took it upon herself to protect people from themselves and that had often put a stop to some of Harry's plans. This was the first time that he wasn't willing to risk it. Because if something stopped him from helping Sirius and revealing that he was innocent then so many more would be hurt than just Harry. He thought about Sirius himself who would be running for the rest of his life. He thought about Penny who almost cried at the idea of Sirius being a free man. And he thought about Draco who had changed so much for this man and who could never go back to his old ways. His family would never accept him again and neither would the other parts of the pureblood community. They needed him and Harry needed to do this for himself.

"My grade in history." Harry told her without as much as a hint of emotion on his face.

Hermione let out a disappointed laugh, muttered fine, and then walked out of the kitchen. The door had just been closed behind her when the oven told Harry that the cookies were finished. _Band-aid for the soul_. He put the cookies on the bench but didn't bother waiting for them to cool off. He really needed them.


	12. Friends: Part I

**Title** : Old Scars and Future Hearts

 **AN** : So, I noticed a flaw in the storyline meaning that the fic doesn't match the book. In the book, everything with the dementor has already taken place prior to them going to Hogsmeade. In the fic, the quidditch game happened and Remus did teach Harry the Patronus Charm before Hogsmeade but they haven't had the lesson with the boggarts and the Fat Lady hasn't been attacked.

 **Word Count** : 2, 636

 **Chapter twelve** : Friends, Part I

* * *

Harry stood in the back of the classroom leaning against the wall. His conversation with Draco from before was still echoing in his head.

* * *

"So, Peter Pettigrew is an animagus." Harry stated and watched as Draco nodded.

"It explains everything," he said as he paced the room while gesturing and practically spitting out the words. "How else would he have gotten away from Sirius that night?"

Harry threw a ball straight up in the air and caught it before it hit the ground. "Maybe he was a very stealthy person."

Draco raised an eyebrow. "You've seen picture of the boy. He was chubby as a child and fat as an adult. There is no way that he could have gotten away because he was stealthy."

"Yeah, but an animagus?" Harry threw the ball again. "Doesn't it take forever to become one?"

"Forever is an exaggeration but yes, it takes a while," Draco admitted as he sat down on the table with his feet resting against a chair. "But it makes sense. Padfoot would be a wolf or something. Prongs would be a deer maybe, Moony would be something and Wormtail would be an actual worm or maybe some kind of rodent."

"Like a rat?" Harry asked. The boys looked at each other. One more hesitant than the other. Harry threw the ball once more before catching it with one hand. "We could always ask him. About the nicknames."

"We shouldn't," Draco shrugged. "But it wouldn't hurt."

"Either we're wrong or we're right," Harry added and pouted his lips. "It wouldn't hurt. But yeah, you're right. We shouldn't."

* * *

Draco stood just next to him with his cloak carelessly thrown over a chair on which he had put his books. Ron stood in the front with Seamus and Dean. Although, Harry was sure that the redheaded boy could feel him looking he had yet to turn around. Hermione had probably told him about their fight and this was his way of showing that he had chosen a side. Harry didn't know if he was happy to see the two of them working together for once or if he was sad to not have Ron in his corner.

"We should be doing something," Draco whispered in a hushed tone of voice. "It doesn't feel right to just sit here and do nothing."

Harry glanced to the side just as professor Lupin began loudly talking at the front of the class. "I agree. But what are we supposed to do? Penny told us that she would look into things and then she would get back to us. Until she does there is nothing for us to do."

Draco let out a deep sigh. "I liked you better when you were talking to Hermione. Are you any closer to getting her to forgive you?"

"She has made it perfectly clear that she will only forgive me if I tell her exactly what we've been doing," Harry responded shortly and shrugged. "But I can't tell her what we've been doing because if I do she'll tell McGonagall or Dumbledore, they'll interfere and we won't be able to get justice for Padfoot."

"Why don't you just lie to her?" Draco commented. "You're a damn good liar Potter. Just do what you always do. Bat those eyelashes, do that one-sided smile she loves so much and watch her turn into a puddle in front of you."

Harry laughed. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Draco smile too. "You have such high thoughts of me. I feel honoured that you would think that I could do something like that."

"Think? Oh Potter, I know you can. She is especially receptive to that look you do so well." He commented briefly.

Harry frowned at him and was just about to ask what that meant when a voice cut through the silence. Draco winked at him before putting a finger in front of his lips and gesturing towards the front of the classroom where professor Lupin stood slightly above everyone else, in front of a closet. "Can someone tell me what a boggart looks like?"

"No one knows," Hermione replied and Harry could see the people most close to her jump at the sound of her voice.

Draco leaned closer to him so that his lips were just next to Harry's ears. "Do you have any idea when she got here? I didn't see her walk into the classroom."

Harry merely shrugged.

"That's very good Miss. Granger," professor Lupin continued as he walked back and forth while looking out at the group of students. "A boggart is a creature which takes the shape of your greatest fear. That implies that if you have ever seen a boggart you have never seen it's true shape. You have only seen what you fear the most and that makes this creature so terrifying."

"So, no one in the history has ever seen a boggart?" Harry asked and earned everyone's attention. "I mean in it's true form."

"Not that I'm aware of Mr. Potter," professor Lupin replied with a smile. "Is that something you would like to strive to achieve?"

Harry laughed. "No professor, it's good to have goals but I have other things I would much rather achieve than to live a life without fear."

"Well-spoken Mr. Potter, fear has a purpose just like every other emotion us humans have to deal with," Harry kept his eyes locked on Remus as he spoke and pretended not to see the way Draco looked at him with a slight frown. "The boggart however, is not something that we have to deal with. Instead we have a spell that we can use to get rid of it…"

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Harry whispered while the rest of the class repeated the spell three times in a row.

"You're acting different and I don't mean different as in just a little bit different. Your starting to remind me of myself after I've been in a huge fight with my father," Draco replied with a shrug. "Is something wrong?"

"I'm pretty sure I'm losing all of my friends," Harry replied shortly without a trace of any emotions. "This is the first time that I'm doing something for myself and this is what happens. Everyone leaves me. I'm all alone again."

Draco shrugged. A sentence rested on the tip of his tongue. He gently tapped the tips of his fingers on his arm as he kept his eyes firmly locked on professor Lupin when he told them to stand in a line. The boggart had taken the shape of professor Snape in a hideous outfit and a crazy purse. Everyone around them was laughing, completely unaware of what the two boys in the back were talking about.

Draco walked first into the line and Harry followed shortly after. For a few minutes, there was silence and shouts of terror were mixed with laughter as the boggart took one shape after the other. The words were still on the tip of his tongue. Draco could hear himself say them out loud and when there were two people in front of him in line he turned around and looked at Harry.

"You're not alone," he said with a slight quiver in his voice. He glanced towards the boggart and saw Hermione Granger being told that she was failing. He was next. "You have me mate."

"Mr. Malfoy, you're up." Professor Lupin's voice echoed through the room and Draco turned around to face the boggart.

He only saw a glimpse of what Hermione had turned it to before the boggart dived headfirst into his psyche to find what scared the teenage boy more than anything else in this world. The boggart turned into a man with long silvery hair, cold eyes and thin lips. His black cloak touched the floor and his heels made a loud booming sound for every step that he took. His cane made an equally loud noise which only grew louder the angrier he looked.

"Disappointment," his father hissed – no the boggart – at him with the viciousness of a snake who was protecting itself from a predator. "You can't do anything right. You are a disgrace, an embarrassment to the house of Malfoy."

A vicious smile appeared on his face. "But I will set you straight. Don't you worry, I will set you straight."

Pearls of sweat ran down his forehead, his breathing was laboured and Draco's mind was completely still. There was a word that he was supposed to say but he couldn't for his life remember what it was. A shiver travelled down his spine when he felt someone touch his shoulder and push him out of the way.

The boggart looked at its new victim and Lucius Malfoy was replaced with a dementor. The tension in the room thickened and it felt for a moment as if the oxygen in the room was vibrating. Harry stood completely still as he watched the dementor approach him. Draco couldn't hear anything over the sound of the blood rushing through his ears but he saw the dementor shrink until it was no bigger than a kitten.

For a moment, everyone was silent. Then the dementor let out a soft meow and everyone laughed. Harry gave professor Lupin a smile before turning to Draco. He still had a smile on his face when he put an arm around the shoulder of the shocked blond who followed him out of the classroom without putting up a fight. No one stopped them. Not even professor Lupin. Before Draco truly realised what had happened he felt cold stone against his back, underneath his hands and against the back of his head. Harry sat on the opposite side and though his mouth was closed his eyes said more than his voice ever could.

"I don't think anyone understood what it meant," Harry eventually said with a shrug. "You don't have to worry about that. People have a habit of hearing what they want to hear instead of the truth."

Draco nodded. "That's good." He took several deep breaths before laughing. "I think I'm a bad influence on you."

"Oh, why do you think that?" Harry asked with sarcasm in his voice as he played along. Draco pointed at him and then towards the door which lead into the classroom. "My sarcasm? Oh please, I've always been like this. I was a small kid before I started playing quidditch. I needed to defend myself somehow."

Draco rolled his eyes and mumbled whatever.

Harry laughed again but after a few seconds his face turned grave. He looked down on the stones and traced them with the tips of his fingers. Draco looked in front of him with a faraway look on his face and occasionally he would release deep breaths as if he had forgotten for a moment that he needed the oxygen. His chest was still for a very long time and then it would clearly rise and slowly go down again.

"We can talk about something other than Padfoot you know," Harry started and felt Draco looking at him even if he was still staring down on the floor. "If you want to talk about what happened in there I just want you to know that I'm here."

"I thought you didn't like me," Draco commented. Harry looked up and saw that the blond had tilted his head to the side. "If my memory serves me correct, and it almost always do, you even called me an asshole a few months ago."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Yeah well, the most important thing to mention is the fact that it was months ago. A lot has happened in those months and I've realised that even though you are not an asshole. You're just really good at hiding your more pleasant sides."

"That's really sweet of you to say," Draco replied with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "You almost make it sound as if we're friends now."

"That was kind of the point," Harry replied as he pushed himself in a standing position. He could hear the sound of feet approaching the door. He walked over to the other side of the corridor and offered Malfoy his hand. "Because whether you like it or not, you are from now on my friend and you'll soon enjoy all the disadvantages that comes with the job."

"How soon are we talking?"

"Very soon," Harry winked at him just as the door was opened and a number of students walked out. As soon as they had walked out of the classroom Harry and Draco walked in.

Professor Lupin sat in front of his desk with a thoughtful expression on his face. The boys barely made it inside the classroom before he looked up and a smile flashed across his face. "Mr. Malfoy, I hope that you're okay. Horrible experience, meeting a boggart. Would you like some chocolate?"

"No thank you sir." Draco replied with a slight shake of the head. Harry did the same when the chocolate was offered to him.

"Padfoot is Sirius," Harry said as he leaned against one of the desks. Draco watched professor Lupin whose facial expression didn't change the slightest. "Who is Prongs, Moony and Wormtail?"

Remus looked down on his desk for a brief moment only to move the book slightly to the side. "Why do you want to know?"

"There is no reason sir," Harry easily lied while looking their professor straight in the face. Harry glanced at Draco. "We just curious because we're doing an assignment about punishment or to be specific methods of punishment and how they've changed through history. Filch let us see who had been to detention the past few years and those nicknames came up several times. Filch only remembered that Sirius Black was Padfoot but he didn't remember the others."

Professor Lupin looked at Draco who nodded with a slightly bored expression on his face. For a moment, no one spoke and then Remus sighed. He pursed his lips but eventually shrugged.

"Your father was Prongs, Peter Pettigrew was Wormtail and I was Moony," he said. "Now, if you excuse me boys, I have somewhere to be."

Harry nodded. "Yes sir, thank you very much for helping us."

Draco and Harry left the classroom. At first neither of them spoke. Harry had his hands stuck down his pockets and he looked around him with a disinterested expression on his face. Draco would occasionally glance at him but his facial expression never changed. Not until they stood outside of the Great Hall.

"I thought you said that we weren't going to do anything," Draco commented once Harry stopped. Their voices got lost amongst the sound of students walking in and out of the Great Hall. "You said that we were supposed to wait until Penny got in touch with us."

Harry shrugged. "We are doing that. Asking questions doesn't count as actually doing something. If we were going to do something then we would have done something more dramatic than ask a question."

Draco rolled his eyes. "So, does that mean that we're going to be good boys and not do anything or… hey, watch it."

Someone had pushed him to run up the stairs and out of nowhere several more students followed. Harry frowned deeply as he watched the growing group of kids who all seemed to be on their way to the same place.

When he saw a flash of red hair he put his hands around his mouth. "Hey Ginny, where's everyone going?"

"The Fat Lady," he vaguely heard as the redheaded girl disappeared further away from him. "Apparently she's been attacked."

"By who?"

"She says it was Sirius Black."


	13. Friends: Part II

**Title** : Old Scars and Future Hearts

 **AN** : You may have heard of the amazing Penny aka padfootastic. You should check her out because that woman has been my greatest inspiration these past few days and I swear that this chapter (or any chapter) would not have been published if it wasn't for her. Make sure that you check out her drabbles in Back to School. It needs more attention than what it's been given. Link is on my profile!

 **Word Count** : 2, 067

 **Chapter thirteen** : Friends, Part II

* * *

Draco didn't believe it for one second. He knew on the way up the stairs that Sirius Black had not attacked the Fat Lady. The man that he looked up to, the first man to escape Azkaban, was not stupid enough to break into Hogwarts during the day when there were students everywhere. No, Draco thought as he followed Harry up the stairs to investigate, Sirius Black had not broken into Hogwarts. It wouldn't matter if Dumbledore himself tried to convince him. Draco wouldn't believe him even for one second. But he appeared to be the only one. He felt people pushing him as they walked up the stairs and heard people mumbling the name Sirius in combination with the words prisoner and Azkaban. He looked at Harry and leaned closer to him.

"So, what do you think about all of this?" he asked in a low tone of voice. Just loud enough for Harry to hear but still low enough so that the others wouldn't care about what he said.

"I'm wondering who attacked the Fat Lady." Harry stated.

He sounded far-away and Draco could tell that his eyes were stuck on someone a few meters before them in the midst of the big crowd of people. Out of the corner of his eye, just behind him, Draco saw a flash of green. There was nothing like a dramatic event to make the students from the four houses mix together in peace, Draco thought cynically.

"So, the _chosen one_ has a theory of his own," Draco felt a shiver run down his spine. No one disliked being given the cold shoulder as much as someone pureblood in his experience. And it would appear as if his former friends were tired of being on the receiving end of his. "Why am I not surprised?"

Harry glanced backwards. Marcus Flint stood behind him with that faraway look that had first made him and Ron suspect that he was half troll. Three years into their education and the Slytherin still hadn't been able to prove them otherwise.

"Do you really think that Sirius Black would have broken into the school at a time like this?" Harry asked and shook his head before Flint had the time to answer. "There's students everywhere. How do you think that he, a person whose appearance is known to everyone, got in and managed to get all the way to the Fat Lady without anyone noticing him earlier?"

Marcus scoffed. The line came to a sudden halt and just a few meters in front of them Draco and Harry could hear the Fat Lady telling people with a terrified tone of voice that she had been attacked by Sirius Black. The words came out quickly as if she was afraid that she would forget it and a squealing sound of panic would erupt every few words as if the event was too horrible to think about, much less talk about.

"It's called hiding in plain sight," he eyed Draco who had remained quiet during the entire exchange of words. Harry glanced at the blond and saw the way that he clenched his jaw. Curly strands of hair fell down his forehead and touched his eyelashes. But in spite of that he kept his eyes open and directed away from Marcus Flint and his group of goonies. "I'm surprised that you haven't heard about that before seeing as my supposed friend has been doing it for years."

Harry glanced at Draco. He let out a deep groan and glanced backwards at Marcus Flint again. Three others stood behind him. Harry knew what their names were but his attention was diverted to the person standing behind the group. It was a boy in their age, a boy who didn't agree and didn't participate in the hassling that followed Marcus Flint: Blaise Zabini. Harry was used to seeing him with the other Slytherins and never questioned if he was there or not. He just assumed that wherever Marcus Flint and his goonies were Blaise Zabini were too. He had gotten used to the constant silence presence of the young man. Harry had gotten used to his presence to the point where he assumed that he was there even when he wasn't. He gasped. This earned him Draco's attention.

"What?"

Harry didn't answer him. He turned around in spite of the moans and groans that erupted when the crowd behind them realised that they weren't getting any closer to the Fat Lady than that.

"Long speeches aren't my thing," Harry began and pointed at Marcus. He had his head tilted to the side and his green eyes twinkled with amusement and a hint of venom. He rarely looked at anyone like that but certain times required him to take actions he normally wouldn't. "So, I'll just go straight to the point. Draco is not your friend and you are going to leave him alone."

Marcus laughed. "And what are you going to do if I don't?"

Harry shrugged. "I'm the chosen one mate, I think I can come up with something. So, don't push me because you will regret it."

He could see Draco smirking at the corner of his eye. Harry had a hard time not smiling when he saw that expression on the blondes' face and didn't bother hiding it once he had passed the group of Slytherins. Blaise Zabini caught his eyes and Harry was surprised to see the dark boy nod at him with the corners of his lips somewhat raised in amusement.

"What was that about?" Draco asked once they had squeezed themselves out of the crowd and out through the entrance. Both boys heard the sound of people talking further away but didn't give them much attention.

"Marcus actually said something intelligent," Harry said with a laugh as he continued walking from the castle and towards the road that would eventually lead down to Hagrid's cabin. He took several deep breaths. In through his nose and out through his mouth as if trying to calm himself down.

Draco frowned at him, wrinkles covered his forehead and his eyebrows had changed into a different angle. "What did he say?"

"Hiding in plain sight," Harry answered with excitement in his voice. When Draco didn't react he laughed, sounding almost manic, and then began gesturing wildly. "We thought the map was broken when it showed Peter Pettigrew. But what if it wasn't, what if he was actually there? What if he was hiding in plain sight in the shape of something, or someone, whose presence everyone in my dormitory had gotten used to and wouldn't think twice about?"

Harry saw when realisation slowly hit Draco. In that moment, he never thought that he had experienced the kind of joy that filled his body. He saw Draco's fingers twitch and Harry even imagined that his eyes started shining brighter as if he was seeing the end of the tunnel. But that could all be Harry imagining things.

"That is brilliant," Draco raised his hands as if he was going to hug Harry but stopped himself and pushed his arms back down. Harry could see the moment that realisation hit him again and the blond boy understood what he had almost done. "That is…"

Before he had the time to finish his sentence Harry surprised himself by raising his own arms and putting them around the blond. He heard Draco whispering, in a shocked tone of voice, that this was bloody brilliant. For the first few seconds he didn't move his arms. Draco just stood there cold and unresponsive as Harry felt more and more uncomfortable in their hug. Just as he was about to back away Draco raised his arms and carefully put them around his back; almost as if he was afraid that he would be scaring Harry.

"Why are you hugging me?" Draco asked in a small voice which reminded Harry of a young child rather than a boy who had just entered his teenage years.

"Because…" Harry thought of the times when he had needed someone to hug him as a child. He thought about the kind of comfort the sensation of having someone's arms around you could bring. "Because you, my friend, looked like you could use one."

Draco's breath hatched in his throat and for a split of a second Harry could feel Draco's grip around him tightening. "Are we really friends?"

Harry laughed. For a moment, the stress that had built up inside of him from not talking to Hermione or Ron about what he was doing was released and all he could think about was the still vulnerable tone in Draco's voice. It was a sound that he never thought that he would hear when they decided that they were going to find out if Sirius was innocent. He never once believed that he would want to continue being friends with the blond even after they found the answer to the questions that they had so vigorously been investigating.

"Of course, we are," Harry said and laughed again as he stroked Draco's back. "Stupid boy."

For a moment, no one said anything. Then Draco took a deep breath and Harry felt the hug loosen. The blond took a step back from him. Draco Malfoy was a completely different person in comparison to who he had been when they began the journey. His curly hair now reached his jaw, his blue eyes could no longer be described as cold and when he wore his uniform he did so sloppily in a way that made teachers look at him as if he was crazy. The only thing that remained was the sharpness of his tongue which could disarm anyone.

"So, what do we do now?" he asked.

Harry took off his backpack and put it on the ground in front of him. Draco already knew, by the look on his face, that it didn't only contain books as he had promised that it did that morning. "We go visit Penny."

"Right now?" Draco asked in an uncertain voice. Harry nodded and gave Draco a look that only said duh. "I think that maybe you should wait a few seconds and maybe you should go talk to her…"

"Talk to who…oh," Harry turned around and saw Hermione standing in front of the entrance that led back to the castle. "I don't think that's a good idea. We don't really have the time."

Hermione's brown, curly hair moved back and forth. Even from that distance Harry could see the worried expression on her face. He could see the way her eyebrows were angled and, maybe he was only imagining things, but he believed that he heard the way the wheels turned around in her head as she wondered what they were up to.

"Do you remember when I told you about the things that I said to Hermione when I was trying to get rid of her before we were going to meet with Penny?" Draco asked and for a moment Harry felt a hint of annoyance in the back of his throat. But the feeling soon disappeared even if he could hear the words that Draco had said as clearly as if he had repeated them. "Well, I didn't only say that."

Harry frowned but didn't look away from Hermione. The distance between them seemed to grow. He knew that it hadn't because neither of the two had moved. "What else did you tell her?"

"I told her that I knew about her crush on you," Draco said.

For a moment Harry felt as if he was going to throw up. Not because the idea of Hermione having a crush on him was in any way disgusting. It just terrified him to the point where he no longer knew what he was going to do. It didn't matter that his heart was beating quicker and that he felt a smile growing on his face. He still didn't know what he was going to do or say.

"Harry? Did you hear me?" he felt Draco's hand on his shoulder and that was enough to wake him up.

"Yes, I heard you," Harry gave Hermione one last glance before turning around and looking at Draco. "I'll talk to her later. But right now, it's really important that you and I go talk to Penny."


	14. Confronting the Past: Part I

**Title** : Old Scars and Future Hearts

 **AN** : I apologise in advance for the ending. Also, if you want to read about the moment when Penny and Sirius reunited, head over to Outtakes.

 **Word Count** : 2, 588

 **Chapter fourteen** : Confronting the Past, Part I

* * *

Harry had, at the age of thirteen, been in many confrontations. Most of the time the confrontations had taken place because someone else had wanted them to. When he went to school, before Hogwarts, it was because the bullies wouldn't leave him alone. When he was at home then Dudley, his aunt and uncle wouldn't leave him alone. The first time that Harry ended up in a confrontation because of something he had done was when he was eleven years old. That was the first time that he came face to face with Voldemort. Or rather what was left of him. And even if Harry sometimes wished that he hadn't experienced what had happened that day, he couldn't deny that his choices had caused the confrontation. He was sure that Voldemort would have been much happier if Harty had stayed out of it. He had to take the blame for the second-year confrontation too. Again, Voldemort would have been much happier if Harry had decided to let Lockhart do the honours of facing him. Those moments, when Harry stood face to face with the man who had gone to such extreme measures to kill him, had been intense. But that was nothing compared to the moment when the door to Penny's flat opened and she saw three people standing outside.

Harry with his messy black hair, those emerald green eyes and a nervous facial expression. His hands were pushed down his pockets, probably because he didn't know what to do with them.

Draco with the blond curls, the icy blue eyes and pouting lips whom looked very grouchy with his arms crossed over his chest.

Then there was Remus Lupin. It was him Penny looked at. Harry didn't know what he had expected would happen when those two laid eyes on each other. One part of him believed that they would be screaming at each other. Unlike Penny, he didn't know that Remus expressed some types of anger silently. His sandy-blond hair was dirty, the boys assumed that he hadn't showered in a few days, he was out of breath and every few steps he would flinch and frown. His face was paler than normal and it felt like the boys could have gotten away from him if they had decided to try but for some reason they hadn't. Harry couldn't explain why. Maybe it was because of that little voice in the back of his head which told them not to underestimate Remus.

"What are you doing here?" Penny asked. It felt like the moment would never end but in reality, it probably only lasted for a few seconds.

Remus gritted his teeth and put one hand on each boy's shoulder. "These two tried to make a run for it. I decided to follow them. I assumed that they would be up to no good."

One corner of Penny's mouth raised but Harry barely noticed it before she looked down on the floor. It didn't matter that they were standing outside and there were plenty of oxygen. It felt like Harry couldn't breathe. The moment was tense, uncomfortable and he just waited for someone to say the wrong thing, or possibly the right thing, which would cause an explosion.

"You should probably come in," Penny walked inside the flat. Her hair was messy, as if she had been dragging her hand through repeatedly it in a short period of time, the colour of her highlights had changed and were now silvery, dark purple and bright pink. She wore a colourful t-shirt and a pair of thigh jeans. "Can I get you anything?"

Draco and Harry barely took two steps down the hallway before they felt someone take a firm grip on their collars and pull them backwards. Draco quickly got his balance back and didn't look like he was affected the slightest by the rough treatment. Harry on the other hand moved his hand and pushed Remus away. He didn't bother check if it was him. Harry assumed that it was. Remus grabbed his shoulder instead and ignored the way Harry glared at him.

"Where is he?"

Penny bent down to pick up things from the floor. Her flat wasn't dirty or messy per say but there were things that had probably fallen down from when someone had been in a rush. Pieces of clothing laid on the ground and Penny picked up a thick jacket among other things. Her face was turned away from them.

"Would you like some tea boys or maybe some water?"

Harry didn't know if it was that Penny blatantly ignored his question, if it was her tone of voice or something else that annoyed him. But he knew that Remus was annoyed. For a moment he believed that he heard his teacher growl at the woman but he quickly told himself that his imagination had played a trick on him. Remus was angry but that was it.

"Answer the question!"

Penny stood and the clothes laid forgotten on the floor. When she looked at Remus her eyes seemed to shoot lightning bolts and Harry got another image of what people must have meant when they spoke of looks that could kill. There was an anger, a viciousness which Harry was sure he had only seen a handful of times. He was thankful, very thankful even, that he wasn't on the receiving end of one of those.

"Why should I tell you?" she asked while gesturing wildly. "What are you going to do huh? Are you going to hand him back to the dementors? Is that what you were planning to do Remus? Just waltz back into the castle and hand him back?"

There was no missing the pain and the anger in Penny's voice. She wore her heart on her sleeve, and Harry could tell that she wasn't used to doing that. He could tell by the way she gestured, and sometimes put her arms around her body, that she was only doing it because she couldn't stop it from pouring out. It reminded Harry of when he was a child and he watched Dudley do an experiment for school. It had something to do with water. Dudley, of course, did it wrong and let the water run into the glass even after it was full. The water ran down the sides of the glass and Harry thought that it looked like it could continue forever. This reminded him of that because Penny in this case was the glass. She had carried these emotions around, the glass was full, and then this event took place, more water was added, and now the emotions came pouring out and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

"He murdered my best friend. He needs to pay…"

Penny let out a loud groan which made Remus stop talking. Her fists went from being clenched and hanging passively by her side to resting against her cheeks. There was no missing the frustration that seeped through every fibre of her being.

"He didn't kill James. He didn't kill Lily," she let out a deep sigh and rested her fingers against her forehead while the other hand rested against her hips. "Sirius didn't do it. Remus, you know in your heart that he didn't do it. He loved James more than he loved anyone in his life. You know that there is no way in hell that he could have possibly betrayed him. He would have rather died than do anything remotely similar to what you are accusing him of."

Remus had let go of Draco and Harry. He went from smiling to looking as if he was in pain. Harry didn't know what to make of that but he did know that Penny didn't react. Draco gestured towards the door, just barely visible for Harry to notice. But the raven-haired boy shook his head and turned his attention to Remus. They couldn't just leave and go back to the castle. If they were going to leave then they needed to know some things first. Because even if Harry was sure that they had figured out a lot, there were probably a lot in the story that they had missed and needed to know to help Sirius.

"You were in love with…"

Penny shook her head and raised a finger to stop him from saying anything more – "…I am not were. I _am_ in love with him."

Remus shook his head as if it didn't matter and although Harry was sure that Penny thought otherwise, she didn't say anything about it. "Fine. You are in love with him. I used to think that you two were beautiful. I cheered you on and I wanted your relationship to last because you made him so damn happy. Those emotions used to benefit you, both of you, but right now it's not. Those emotions are just making you blind to the truth."

"Stop, just stop it," Penny shook her head and then she laughed. Not loud. And she didn't sound happy. It didn't even sound like a real laughter but at the same time it couldn't be described as anything else. "My emotions are not making me blind. But your guilt, Remus, is doing that to you. It's making you completely unable to see what is right in front of you."

Remus looked at Harry. For a moment the boy thought he saw something that looked like nostalgia. A smile flashed across his teachers face but it disappeared a moment later. Harry didn't know what to expect. More anger, more accusations, more tension increasing words? Anything could happen and that was not necessarily a good thing. Then Remus looked at Penny again. His hands were intertwined and there were no emotions on his face.

"I see James' son," he began. "I see Lily's son and I am reminded by how important it is that Sirius pay for what he did."

Harry didn't think before he spoke. But then again, that was hardly something new. In tense moments, in confrontations, he rarely gave much thought to the words that first appeared in his head and then was spoken out loud. "I don't think he did it."

His words rarely carried any weight. It felt like people didn't listen too carefully. His words went in through one ear and then out the other. People heard him but they didn't listen to him. There was a difference. Normally, it didn't bother him. This time that did not happen. He was given all the attention. Remus was the only one who looked shocked at what Harry had just said.

"See Remus," Penny said. There was a certain desperation in her voice that Harry hadn't heard before. "Harry doesn't believe that Sirius did it. Please, if you can't listen to me then listen to him. Listen to Draco."

Remus glanced to the side and for a moment looked as if he was reminded of Draco's presence. The blond didn't seem to take offence even if Harry rolled his eyes and scoffed. He was not fine with having his friend being forgotten after everything he had done.

"Malfoy," Remus glanced at Penny whom nodded. He turned his attention back to Draco. "You believe that Sirius Black is innocent?"

That famous snarky expression appeared on Draco's face. Harry had never been so grateful to see it before. "With all due respect professor, the answer to your question should be quite obvious but I am going to answer anyway by saying that I wouldn't be here if I didn't believe that to be the truth."

The tension changed. It became more alive. It felt like a breathing, living, being which could explode at any moment.

"Look professor," Harry said and efficiently earned Remus attention. "We can tell you about what happened. We can guide you through every event that led to my parents being betrayed and… murdered." – Harry's throat closed up when realisation hit him. He rarely thought about the fact that his parents had actually been murdered – "But I don't think that we need to. Because you know, you know in your heart that Sirius would never have betrayed my parents, or you or Peter. Sirius wasn't that kind of person, he wouldn't do that to you. It was Peter all along."

"Peter? Peter betrayed Lily and James?" Remus looked dazed and Harry almost questioned if his teacher understood what he was being told. "But if Sirius is innocent, why did he break into Hogwarts?"

Harry wanted to tell Remus that Sirius hadn't done that when Penny began speaking again. There was an urgency in her voice, in her gestures but she looked more in control than she had been moments ago.

"Because Peter is at Hogwarts," her smile grew as she moved her head to look him in the eyes. Remus didn't try to avoid her but his movements had become slower and she had no patience. "Peter cut his finger off. He faked his own death and somehow got to Hogwarts. He's been living in his animagus-form for twelve years."

Remus closed his eyes for a few seconds. He scrunched his face together as if he was experiencing a particularly bad headache. Harry would understand if he did but the seconds felt more like hours and the longer it took the more he felt like doing something to wake Remus from this paralysation. He couldn't even enjoy the fact that he and Draco had been right.

"You need to prove it," he eventually spoke. Somehow it sounded as if he had aged several years in the past few seconds. When Remus opened his eyes, he looked at Penny. "You know where he is. Take me to him and let him prove it."

Penny clenched her fists. "What are you going to do if he can't prove it?"

"Hand him over to the dementors," Harry took a step back. He ignored the hurt expression on Remus face. All he could hear in the moment that followed was the sigh that came from Penny. It said more than words ever could and it appeared to leave her body in slow motion. "If it comes down to that, can you please do me a favour and promise not stop me?"

Penny looked like she was about to laugh. She didn't. But she did smile at him as if he was the biggest idiot on the planet. "Of course, I can't promise you that, I won't."

"You know that you can go into Azkaban for aiding and abetting a wanted criminal?" Remus paused. "Are you really willing to risk going to Azkaban for him?"

Penny had grabbed her jacket. Harry could see her the wand in her pocket and was sure that Remus had too. There was a determination and a strength in the way she slid into her short, black leather booths. It reminded Harry of Hermione and of McGonagall. Both strong women he wouldn't want to get on his bad side. They had the ability to make anything look dangerous. Penny could obviously do that too. Because her smile, although it didn't make her look dangerous per say, made Harry sure of the fact that Remus was at a serious disadvantage. Not the other way around.

"I can guarantee you that it won't come down to that. But yes, Remus, I am willing to go to Azkaban for him," she fixed her collar and brushed of some dust. "Let's go boys, time to confront the past."


	15. Confronting the Past: Part II

**Title** : Old Scars and Future Hearts

 **AN** : I realise that I create a lot of questions in this chapter. But I will answer them. At some point. I also realise that Hermione and Ron acts really out of character in this one. But I needed them to and there's really no better reason than that. Sorry. Also, fair warning to all of you that I am awful at writing action scenes. As in truly horrifyingly awful so I apologise for this. Because it may decrease the quality of the entire fic. But, to leave things on a more optimistic note, I've reached chapter fifteen and also, this is the longest chapter I've ever written for this fic! It's also the longest multi-chapter fic I've ever written.

 **Word Count** : 4, 164

 **Chapter fifteen** : Confronting the Past, Part II

* * *

Harry wouldn't say that he had any expectations of what it would be like to come face to face with the person that he and Draco had spent months trying to prove were innocent of the crime that he had been convicted of. But he had always assumed that it would be more dramatic than it was. Maybe because every big event in Harry's life had been dramatic. Dramatic, bloody and by any standards traumatic. Maybe he had himself to blame. He had built up Sirius Black in his mind to the point where he almost wasn't a man. He was a shadow. A whispering voice. Nothing more than a charming smile, a bold personality and the background that both Harry and Draco had read about. But he really was just a man.

Harry never thought that sentence would make him happy. But it did.

Sirius Black was a skinny man with long brown hair. He looked much better as he stood in the middle of one of the rooms in the Shrieking Shack than he had on the posters where Harry had first seen his face. But there were still traces of scars on his face and Harry assumed that the scars didn't stop at his skin. He was seated on a table when they walked in. His hand hung forward and he swung his legs back and forth. His hair hung freely around his head and created a curtain which separated him from the world. Then he looked up. There was a smile on his face. A smile that didn't quite reached to his eyes.

"I had to bring him," Penny took two steps across the floor. One of her arms reached across his shoulders and the other found his hand as she positioned herself between him and Remus. A gesture that the new professor did not miss even if he appeared amused. "We need to prove to him that you're innocent."

Her words seemed to go in through one of Sirius' ear and out the other without leaving any permanent trace. Only the way he squeezed her hand showed that he had heard her. Harry was aware of the fact that Sirius was looking at him because Harry couldn't stop looking at him. His own face remained still, his mouth slightly open, and he looked almost unaffected. In reality, he was affected and thoughts were spiralling out of control inside his mind. His mind had never felt too small before. But in that moment Harry wished that he had a bigger brain so that he could think of everything at once.

This man was his father's best friend. One of them. This was the man whom Harry was supposed to have grown up with if Sirius hadn't been framed for the murder of two of his friends, well three really. Harry felt the emotions fighting within his body. Anger, sadness and hope. He knew what he had lost but he didn't know what he could gain. He really wanted to find out. Harry didn't notice until after a few minutes of silence that everyone had noticed why Sirius hadn't said anything. Harry almost wanted to ask what he was thinking about. But then Sirius looked away from him and focused on Remus.

"What do you want to know?" There was a frosty undertone to Sirius words that couldn't be missed but Remus didn't seem to be affected.

"I don't want to know anything. I don't want to sit here and listen to you repeat the crazy theory that Penny has already told me _more than I can count_. I want you to show me some solid proof," He took a deep breath. His chest raised and sunk in a rapid manner. "You claim that Peter betrayed Lily and James. You claim that he is at the castle. Well, prove it to me. Show me, Peter Pettigrew. Can you do that? Can you show me more than his finger?"

Sirius frowned. He glanced at Penny and Harry could see that something was being said between them but he had no idea what it was. He could only see that Penny did not like what she heard, or saw, she did not like it one bit. Harry felt someone grab his bag. His body tensed but when he saw that familiar blond hair he relaxed and allowed Draco to pull the bag of his back.

"I can show you," he opened the bag and dug around for a moment until he found the map.

Harry glanced away from the pair again in favour of looking at Sirius. He had been in many adrenaline-filled moments. There had been time when he had been forced to react quickly and he was used to that feeling. He was used to hearing his heartbeat over the sound of everything that was going on around him. He was not used to this calm situation and he could not believe that they had found Sirius Black.

"I wanted to ask you the first time we met but it would have been hard considering my form," Sirius scratched his neck. Harry saw the way his arm reached around Penny's waist and his fingers rested against her hip. There was a certain insecurity in his voice. "How did you know that I was innocent?"

The second time he spoke, his voice sounded more secure. Almost as if Penny had provided him with the courage that he needed.

"It's a weird story," Harry laughed. "I'll tell you when this is all over and you're officially a free man."

Sirius nodded. The smile on his face, the way his eyes glimmered, for a moment made him look younger. Harry couldn't help but wonder if maybe he did. Maybe Harry wasn't imagining things. Then he wondered what his father was like? Did he and Harry have something in common? At some point he was going to ask Sirius everything, every question that popped up in his mind. But for now, they had to convince Remus that Sirius was innocent.

"Have you found him yet?"

Both Remus and Draco frowned at the map as if they truly couldn't understand what they were seeing. Draco opened his mouth to answer but when a voice echoed through the room it wasn't Draco's voice.

"Well, well, well… look who we have here," Snape's voice had always been uncomfortable. "What a little nice reunion. How nice friends you have Sirius. Imagine that they did this for you even if they didn't know where you were."

Remus looked unamused as he shrugged. "I didn't know where he was." That earned him a nasty glare from Draco and Harry was once again thankful that they weren't enemies.

"Oh," Snape glanced at Penny whom only looked angrier than before. "So, you're the only accomplish. Why am I not surprised? I should have known that you would come running the moment he called for you. It's almost as if you have _doglike_ traits or should I say wolf?"

Sirius stood up and Harry was sure that the only thing that kept him from jumping at Snape was the way Penny put her arm in front of him.

"Good choice Black," Snape continued talking with that smug facial expression. "After all, wolves have a stronger survival instinct than humans. Maybe listening to one will help you survive long enough for us to take you to the dementors. They've been waiting for you. They've been waiting to give you the kiss you should have been given years ago. I've heard that witnessing a kiss is absolutely horrifying but I will do my absolutely best to manage."

There was a tension in the air after that. A tension and a fear that could not be ignored. For Harry it felt like everyone else in the room disappeared and all he could see was Snape and the way he looked at Sirius with hatred. It made him think about himself and Draco. They had hated each other for years. That could not be denied. But even when they were at their worst Harry was sure that neither had looked at the other with that kind of hate. Harry could admit that he wanted bad things for Draco but never in his life had he wished for him to die or to be kissed by a dementor.

"How did you find us _Snape_?" Penny sounded as angry as she looked.

Her hands shook against her sides and she moved slowly as she took a few steps away from Sirius and closer to Snape. She had probably determined that he was the biggest treat. Harry couldn't stop thinking about the way she looked when she told Remus that she was not going to let him take Sirius to the dementors. Harry hadn't doubted her then but he was, if possibly, more convinced that she would do anything to get him out of this situation.

"I had some help from your friends, Mr. Potter," Snape glanced at him.

Then the door opened and Harry saw a flash of red and brown. Ron and Hermione. Even if he hadn't gotten the wind knocked out of him when Hermione hugged him Harry would have exhaled deeply. Could this have been avoided if he had only explained what he was doing and why he was doing it? He wasn't sure. On the one hand, Hermione had been on his side many times but there had been times when she had gone directly to the teachers to stop him from doing anything to hurt himself. He couldn't figure out what she would do this time and it hadn't been worth the risk. Ron, he was sure, would not have helped him. The ministry, Ron's father, had told him that Sirius was dangerous and he wouldn't listen to anyone else. Not that Harry blamed him. Maybe this could have been avoided but the what ifs were too many for Harry to comfortably tell them.

"You're an idiot." Hermione said as she let go of him.

Ron stood in the back nodding. "This time I'm with her mate."

He wanted to tell them that this was a crazy situation and that they were not meant to be there. This was not meant to happen. They were not supposed to turn this into some kind of fight. They were supposed to… Harry frowned at Ron.

"How did you find me?"

"Well," Ron scratched the back of his head. "After you and Malfoy disappeared we went to see Hagrid. We had some tea with him and then on the way back to school we found Scabbers and that's when we saw Black go to the …"

"Scabbers!" Harry and Draco said at the same time.

"Where is he?" Harry felt the adrenaline rush through his body again. Hidden in plain sight. "Please, tell me that you brought him with you?"

"Yeah," Ron answered in a tone of voice that showed how confused he was as to why his best friend were all of the sudden so interested in his rat. Ron moved his shirt to the side to reveal a pocket on the right side. "He's sleeping. The poor guy looked absolutely exhausted. I think he's been running from Crookshanks."

That cat had never been more beautiful. Even Draco looked as if he was thinking about scratching the cat or giving him some kind of treat the next time that Crookshanks appeared. Harry held his breath as he glanced down at the sleeping rat. Scabbers had been asleep through it all. He didn't know what to say about that but whether or not he was asleep mattered very little. This was the proof they needed, now all they had to do was…

"I hate to break up this little reunion but if you would be so kind as to follow me Black, it's time to see your old friends again." Sirius went pale and Harry saw the way his hands shook against his leg. But it wasn't the kind of movement that was associated with anger. He looked terrified. His mouth opened just a little bit as if he wasn't sure if he wanted to breath in or not.

"Yeah," Penny crossed her arms over her chest. "That's not going to work with me Snape. Only one man dies tonight and that person is not Sirius Black. When he leaves this building, it will be as a free man and I will do anything to make that happen."

Snape looked at Sirius with a mocking expression on his face. "Do you need your girlfriend to fight your battles?"

"No," Penny bit back. Sirius hadn't even thought about answering. He had taken a few steps back and were leaning the palm of his hands on the table. He was still pale and his knuckles had turned white but there was a certain degree of bravery and pride that hadn't been there before. There was a hint of a smile on his face. "But he's been fighting for twelve years so I'm happy to do the fighting for him right now."

"And what are you going to do about it?" Snape hissed.

Penny shrugged and pulled her hands out of her pockets. "I won't be doing anything but believe me someone will. You see, I'm not the only one who wants to find the truth."

While Snape had been focused on Sirius and Penny, Harry had raised his wand. He could see that Draco looked at him from the corner of his eye but no one else noticed. They were too mesmerised by what was going on in front of them to notice that something was also going on behind them. One swift movement, one word, and Snape was pushed into a wall with a power that rendered him unconscious.

"You attacked a teacher." Hermione exclaimed with horror.

Bur Harry didn't listen. "Give me Scabbers!"

"Scabbers… what are you going to… Hey, give him back!"

Remus had crossed the room and pushed his hand down Ron's pocket in a way which Harry was sure would wake Scabbers up. Or Peter. Not that any of it mattered. He didn't care what he was supposed to call the bloody rat and he didn't care if he was woken up or not. All he cared about was that the truth was right there in front of them. It was about to be revealed and that meant that he and Draco succeeded. It was chaos. Harry wanted to laugh. He saw Snape lying passed out in the corner of the room. He saw Sirius approaching Remus while Penny stood behind. He moved away from Ron and Hermione whom stood together in the back of the room. They had been with him through everything and this was the first time that they had no idea what had been going on.

"What are they going to do to him?"

"They aren't going to do anything to him," Penny's voice was soothing in the midst of the chaos. He hadn't noticed that the crossed the room but the sound of her voice had startled him and when he looked around he saw that she was standing in front of Ron. "If we're right then we're going to see his true form and if we're wrong then your rat will be fine."

Ron nodded. Harry couldn't blame him. There was something about Penny's voice, or maybe her eyes, that could calm down anyone. Well, almost anyone.

"Penny, I want you to take them out of here." Remus said and the woman in question turned around with a look that made Harry question if she was the same person who had managed to comfort Ron. But it wasn't Penny who argued.

"We're not leaving Harry with a…" Hermione said with a tone of voice that Harry was sure that she had never used with a teacher before. Or even thought about using with a teacher. "Escaped prisoner and a werewolf. And there's nothing you can do to convince me."

The only thing that could be heard was the sound of the rat squealing in the firm grip of Remus Lupin.

"I'm betting you aren't comfortable coming with me either then," Penny said from Harry's side. There was a hint of bitterness in her voice. "The almost werewolf."

He saw Sirius reaction and couldn't help but smile in spite of the tension that came over them like a dark cloud. The older man looked at anyone as if daring them to say anything about it. And in that moment Harry almost wondered if he would forget his fight for freedom in favour of fighting for Penny.

Harry took a deep breath and moved to stand in front of Hermione. He looked her straight in the eyes, he batted his eyelashes and he pouted his lips. But when he spoke, no lies were told. Instead he spoke with an emotional voice that wavered ever so slightly. "Please, I need to know the truth. We've been working for this the entire year. This is why I've been lying to you and if we don't reveal the truth then that would have been for nothing. So, I'm begging you to please leave. I promise that I will explain everything but not right now."

He could see the questions forming inside her head but nothing came out of her mouth. This time, Hermione Granger didn't ask any questions. "We're leaving Ron."

"But…" Harry didn't see the look that Hermione gave Ron but he could imagine what it looked like and he knew that in words that look was equal to a non-friendly way of telling someone to be quiet and obey.

Penny looked doubtful. She weighed back and forth on her feet.

"I don't know how much this is worth," Harry said and earned her full attention. "But we're not letting anything bad happen to him."

"That means everything," a smiled flashed across Penny's face but the moment she looked at Remus it disappeared again. "If you do anything to hurt him Remus…"

The man in question smiled. "You haven't changed a bit, have you Penny? Always looking out for others instead of yourself."

Penny didn't answer the question. A final look was shared between her and Sirius and then she walked towards an exit. Different to the one Harry had entered and disappeared with Hermione and Ron. For a moment everything was silent and all you could hear was the laboured breathing of the four men and the squealing from the one rat who carried the answer.

Harry had expected some dramatics from this moment. But he did not expect to see a rat turn into a man. But that's what happened. Sirius and Remus pointed their wands at the rat whom failed to get away as he turned into a man with brown, shaggy hair, long fingernails that looked like claws and brown eyes that appeared too big for his head. He was skinny, he was dirty and Harry was remembered by Ron complaining that his rat hadn't been eating that well in the past few months. That made a lot of sense.

"Holy…" Draco put his hand over his mouth as he watched Sirius and Remus grab hold of the person who had just seconds earlier been a rat and forced him to stand against the wall through which he had tried to escape. "We fucking did it."

Harry wanted to tell him that they hadn't done anything yet. But he remained quiet as Sirius and Remus held their wands directed at the man in front of them. He was vaguely aware of the fact that they were screaming at him and asking him questions. But all Harry could see was the terrified expression on his face. This was the person who had betrayed his parents. This was the man who was the blame for Harry growing up with the Dursleys. Was he expected to hate him? Was Harry expected to be unable to control his emotions? He wasn't sure.

"You sold out Lily and James to Voldemort and then you framed me for it," Sirius shouted at him, there was a snarl on his face. The anger radiated from him like waves. "Admit it Peter."

Harry hadn't seen many movies but the few movies that he had seen when someone was being pushed to admit to having done something criminal it had taken a while for the person to admit. Rarely had he seen someone start to cry and fall to the floor the way Peter did when confronted by his former friends.

"I had no choice." his voice sounded whiny, pleading and desperate.

Sirius took a step back from his former friend. There was a frown on his face, for a moment Harry wondered if he was going to be sick, but then he regained composure. His hand went through his hair and pain flashed across Remus face so quickly that Harry almost missed it.

"You had no choice? Of course, you had a choice, what could he have possibly been holding over your head to make you even consider betraying your best friend?" Remus didn't shout. He was nowhere near as expressive as Sirius but still it was impossible to miss the complete lack of belief that came out so clearly in the way he spoke and the way he looked at the crumpling figure of his former best friend.

Peter, whom until that point had been crawled together with his back against the wall and his arms around his legs, gesticulated back and forth with his arms. "He was going to kill me."

"Then you should have died Peter, like we would have done for you," Sirius took a deep breath and when he spoke it sounded like his heart was breaking inside of his chest and Harry realised what his father had meant to the man standing in front of him. "James would have died for you. He would have died for all of us."

"Would he Sirius, are you sure?" There it was again. The silent communication that Harry had seen between Penny and Sirius. When they had done it, Harry had been unable to guess what they were saying to each other but in this case, he had a pretty good guess of what words, though not being spoken out loud, had been shared between the former friends.

"That's not important here. The only thing that matters here is that you betrayed James and you framed Sirius," Remus laughed. "Let me tell you something Peter, you are going to wish that Voldemort killed you because killing him would have been easy for him. You were nothing more than a foot soldier who would have eventually been bad for business. But this" – he gestured between the three – "this is personal and you are going to pay for what you did to us. You are going to pay for what you did to James, to Lily and to Harry."

"WAIT…" Harry felt Draco's hand on his arm, and was reminded of his presence, but quickly shook it off. He was sure that if Sirius and Remus had been more attentive to the things around them then he wouldn't have been able to push them away like he did.

Thankfully, they didn't and Harry wound up standing between them and Peter. It struck him that this was the first time that he had ever been standing this close to the person responsible for his parents' death. But the moment the thought entered his head he shook it away.

"What are you doing Harry?" It was like listening and looking at a different Sirius. He no longer looked angry and his voice was soft. It reminded Harry of something but he couldn't quite figure out what. "This man betrayed your parents. He should die."

"Yeah," Harry nodded. The floor creaked when Draco crossed the floor to join them. He looked at Harry and nodded ever so slightly. "He does. But I don't want you to do it. For what it's worth, considering that I never got to know my dad, I don't think he or my mother would have wanted you to become killers even if it was for them."

Sirius nodded and glanced at Remus. "What were you planning to do with me?"

"I was going to hand you over to the dementors." Remus replied with a shrug as he scratched his neck.

"You were… "– Sirius looked at him as if he had grown an extra head and Harry almost laughed out loud at how bizarre it was that the current conversation was happening at that point in time – "Never mind, let's just go. Someone else grab the rat and Snape."

Remus waved his wand and Snape's unconscious shape was slowly raised higher into the air. "What are you going to do?"

Sirius looked at Harry and smiled. "I'm going to get to know my godson."


	16. The Wolf: Part I

**Title** : Old Scars and Future Hearts

 **AN** : Hi guys, I want to start by apologising profoundly for the lack of updates in the past few weeks. I also want to say thank you so much to everyone who had favourited and followed. You guys are amazing and I appreciate the support! I promise that I am not giving up on this story. So please, have a little faith even when there's slightly longer periods of time between the updates.

 **Word Count** : 2, 098

 **Chapter sixteen** : The Wolf, Part I

* * *

A wolf, interestingly enough, can survive both on its own and with a pack. That being said, the wolf always belongs to a pack, it just choses if it should be with them or not. A wolf has no trouble with wandering off for a few days only to re-join the rest of the pack later. Wolves, like every other animal in the world, has survival instincts and they have a desire to protect their own kind because if everyone else dies then the species would go extinct. If one were to put it poetically, the wolf always returns home to make sure that everyone is okay. That's what it felt like for Sirius when he heard Remus walking behind him. The biggest part of him was angry and hurt by the fact that the man had thought him capable to betray their best friends and thus be the cause for their death. But there was still a part of him, deep inside, which felt lighter because Remus had realised that he was innocent. Maybe two marauders had been lost forever but he still had _one_ left. And Harry. He had Harry.

"What are you thinking about?" the boy in question asked him as he walked next to Sirius a few meters in front of Remus, Draco, a whining Peter and a floating, thankfully still unconscious, Snape.

Sirius scratched the back of his head. "Nothing too complicated I'm afraid. I just can't stop thinking about how much you look like your dad."

Harry smiled and the resemblance only grew stronger. Sirius didn't know what to do. It was clear to him that this was Harry. _This was not James_. But Merlin, he looked so much like James. Had it not been for the eyes, the slight facial traits that made him differ from his father, then it would have been like looking at the face of Sirius best friend.

"Except that I have my mother's eyes, right?"

Sirius laughed; it reminded of a dog barking. "I'm guessing this isn't the first thing you've heard this."

"Not really," Harry shook his head. "But it feels different hearing it from you."

Sirius, unsure of what to say, merely nodded and smiled at him. "You were supposed to tell me why you thought that I was innocent."

"Yeah," Harry glanced backwards and Sirius thought he saw Draco wink at him. "The short story is that my biggest enemy, snarky blond guy back there, came to my house with the Dursleys during the summer to give me a diary that you had written when you went to school."

Sirius blinked several times.

"I thought for sure that you were going to object to being called snarky Mr. Malfoy."

"… There's no point in arguing the truth Professor."

Harry wanted to tell Sirius that it was a bizarre situation. But then he looked around and he realised that no matter how bizarre it had appeared at the beginning of the summer, that Draco Malfoy had appeared at his house, nothing could compare to the situation they were in at the time. Snape was unconscious. He was in the company of his former nemesis, a teacher who was a werewolf, the man who had been wrongfully found guilty for murder and the man who had actually committed the murder. It sounded like a bad joke. Well, almost…

"The Dursleys?"

This time Harry blinked at his godfather. There was a lot of things he thought Sirius would have reacted to in that sentence but he didn't expect _that_.

"Yeah, my mum's sister and her husband… oh and my cousin Dudley of course."

Sirius hummed. "So, what's it like living with them?"

There were many words that Harry could use to describe the experience. He glanced down towards the ground and shrugged before looking back at his godfather. In those seconds the man had changed. The changes weren't dramatic. It wasn't like Harry could all of the sudden see a dark cloud floating above his head. But there were changes. There were wrinkles on his forehead and Sirius looked as if he was trying to read him. It reminded Harry of Hermione whom sometimes, when she believed that he wasn't paying attention, looked at him almost like Sirius did in that moment. It felt like they were reading him.

"I can't say much. Because, it's nothing out of the ordinary… you know, it's home and I live there."

Sirius nodded and when he laughed it was completely without any joy in his voice. "I would have said the same about living with my parents. I did actually say that once when your grandparents asked me."

One would have thought that a tension would have appeared. But neither Harry nor Sirius looked troubled by the topic they were treading around with a deep-rooted insecurity that could only exist for one reason. Remus glanced at Draco, but the blond didn't react even if he had heard the words as clear as day, and the older man felt a question appear on the tip of his tongue. But Remus didn't say anything.

"Hogwarts was my home before I ran away," Sirius shook his head as if suddenly remembering something. "But you already knew that because you've read my diary."

"Yeah, but I like hearing it from you," Harry commented while looking straight ahead of himself. "While I was reading I tried to imagine what you would sound like but unlike Draco I don't really have the imagination for it."

"I doubt that Harry," Sirius nudged him. "You seem imaginative enough considering everything you've done."

There was a certain look on Harry's face that Sirius didn't like in that brief moment but he decided not to say anything.

"I am imaginative in certain areas I suppose," Harry shrugged. "But I can't imagine what people look like or what they sound like when I read books. I knew what you looked like because I saw a photo but I couldn't remember your voice."

A breeze of cool air told them that the exit was nearing and Sirius took a deep breath. In that moment he was sure of the fact that he would never stop appreciating what grass felt like, how the breeze felt against his skin or the view of the sky.

"What's the verdict?" He asked after a moment of silence. Harry looked at him questioningly. "Now that you've heard my voice, what's the verdict?"

Harry looked thoughtful as he stopped and allowed Sirius to walk before him to get out of the tunnel. "It sounded familiar."

Sirius wanted to tell his godson that he had missed him. He wanted to apologise for not being there and he wanted to tell Harry that he would do anything to make sure that he never had to go back to the Dursley's. But the words got stuck in his throat and in the end, he merely smiled before hesitantly reaching his arms towards Harry as if wanting to hug him. Sirius was uncertain and nervous for the few seconds that went by until Harry closed the distance between them.

"I'm glad we found you."

Sirius nodded. "Me too Harry. More than you will ever know."

* * *

Almost being a werewolf, but not entirely, was odd. Or weird. That's what Penny had told Sirius when he first asked her after she had told him the truth when they were in school together. On the one hand she wasn't considered entirely human due to her heightened hearing, her sense of smell and her taste. But on the other hand, she wasn't entirely a werewolf either since she didn't change every full moon. The scratch had given her two reasons for purebloods to look down on her; her parents were muggles and she had werewolf like traits. Those traits came with some benefits though. It wasn't all bad. She had no problem hearing every word spoken between Hermione and Ron as they walked in front of her on their way back to the castle.

"I can't believe we left him there with…"

"… I didn't want to, it was your idea. We should have stayed. What if they kill him?"

"Don't make me feel worse Ronald. I've already told you that I wished we would have stayed but…"

"… Give me a break Hermione. You can't do whatever he wants because he bats his eyelashes at you."

Penny wanted to laugh out loud at the sound of that last sentence but chose not to. It reminded her of a completely different conversation between Sirius and James when they were sixteen years old.

* * *

Sirius had just been forced to cut his hair by Mrs. Potter whom had insisted that it was because it was starting to look thin and worn out; it wasn't at all because she was trying to convert him to getting shorter hair. But his dark brown hair still hung perfectly around his head. His grey eyes twinkled with amusement due to the scene which had unfolded just minutes before with Lily walking away with a smile on her face. James and Sirius sat on either side of the couch with books and notes between them. James messy hair looked even messier due to the many times that he had run his fingers through his hair in frustration when trying to truly understand the gibberish the book claimed was important to know. He frowned and bit his lips but read in silence. Occasionally he would reach his foot over so that Sirius noticed it and then he would ask a question. But that was before Lily had come to ask him a favour and now Sirius was looking at James with a big smile on his face. Penny sat by the wall with Dorcas and Marlene next to her. Both girls were deeply invested in a discussion about the most recent Charms homework but since a few minutes back Penny had only been listening with one ear.

"Come on Prongs," Sirius had said laughing as they sat in the couch of the Gryffindor Common Room. "You can't do everything she asks you to because she bats those eyelashes at you."

James sighed deeply as his cheeks turned into a darker shade of red. "I can't help it."

"Well, you've got to work on that mate." Sirius insisted.

But his best friend merely shook his head and gave Sirius a crooked smile. "Nah, I don't think so. Besides you don't really mean that Pads."

Sirius glanced over at Penny whom winked at him. "No, I suppose not."

* * *

It was one of those moments that bothered Penny because she didn't know how she was supposed to feel about it. On the one hand, she couldn't help but think back and notice that Peter hadn't been anywhere to be seen that day. She knew that Remus had been in one corner of the room playing chess with Frank Longbottom but Peter didn't appear until very late that day. At the time they had all assumed that he was at the library studying or being tutored by McGonagall but in hindsight Penny had started creating a different answer for herself. Just thinking about him conspiring behind their backs made her feel sick to her stomach. It didn't matter if it was true or not; the possibility of it made her want to scream out loud. If only they had known. She wished that they could have known because then they could have stopped Lily and James from dying. Everything would be different. If only there had been a sign, and not a subtle one, a sign like the full moon…

"Oh no." Penny stopped dead in her tracks and for a moment she thought that she was going to throw up. She was only barely aware of the fact that Hermione and Ron were talking to her.

"What's going on?"

"…Penny?"

"You need to get back to the castle," Penny could tell that Hermione was about to argue. Ron was just looking at her as if she had gone completely crazy in the few seconds that had gone by. But she didn't have time to listen to either one of them. "I am not asking you to go back to the castle. I am telling you. Go back to the castle right now."

"Where are you going?"

Penny didn't reply. There was no time. She turned her back on them, her wand was already her in hand, and ran back the same way they came from; much faster when a loud howl was heard in the night.


	17. The Wolf: Part II

**Title** : Old Scars and Future Hearts

 **Word Count** : 2, 443

 **Chapter seventeen** : The Wolf, Part II

* * *

 _Remus Lupin._

It was ironic, really, that he was bitten by Fenrir Greyback. Or maybe it wasn't the bite in itself which was ironic or even who the person behind the bite was; the irony was that he, out of all people, was turned into a werewolf. Destiny or faith, or whatever power one believed in must have smiled the day that he was born and made a mental note to have some fun with that one later in life. Most of the time Remus knew that wasn't truth. But it was hard to overlook the irony during those last agonising seconds before his mind was taken over by the wolf.

There was no other way of describing what happened inside of him. It felt as if a force, much greater than what he was used to, forced its way into his mind and took over every piece of it until his own thoughts, his will had completely vanished. He knew that he would roam around the forest, hopefully not running into anyone, for the remainder of the night but he never remembered what happened. It was as if his brain truly didn't belong to him, so the memories didn't stick. He could never decide what he thought about that specific detail. Maybe it was for the best? Remus truly didn't know. But for a very long time he would make an effort and give everything he had to remember what happened during those nights when he lost control of his actions.

 _Penny Singh._

There was no irony. It was just bad luck. She was at the wrong place at the wrong time and albeit there were consequences from being scratched by a werewolf; those weren't as bad as the consequences that Remus had to endure. She didn't lose herself to the power of the wolf every month. But she was affected and Penny had never been as grateful for that as she was in the moment when she turned around to find the others. She felt no fear at the thought of the wolf smelling the air as if he was searching for something. Because if he smelt her then he would be able to tell that there was something "wolf-like" about her.

"Remus, answer me?!"

She could hear the sound of Sirius voice before she saw the five figures on the hill with the moon behind them acting like a spotlight. Remus was long gone and Sirius pleading didn't affect him the slightest. Draco and Harry were being pushed back by Snape who had his wand directed at the two friends whom were struggling for power. Penny gasped and muttered some well-chosen words as she realised what was wrong other than the obvious. There was supposed to be six people and yet there were only five. Her normally brown eyes turned into a different colour for only a brief moment as she listened beyond the sound of people brawling and without making any effort Penny could smell the wet fur of the rat whom ran further and further away from the group of people. She could hear the sound of his tiny lungs filling up with air and the claws as they scratched the ground every time he took another leap forward.

"I am not going to let you get away again," she whispered under her breath while running forwards. Penny wasn't even sure if the man in question could hear her but she didn't care much either. "You managed to escape justice once before but you won't escape this time. I won't let you."

Penny didn't need to listen to know that Peter's heart was racing inside his chest. Just like she wouldn't have to ask if he was afraid of her. He was afraid of her; but not as much as he was of Sirius and Remus. They had, after all, been friends at one point and Penny knew that Peter feared standing in front of them again especially since that meant that he would have to admit to the things that he had done. It was one thing to actually betray your friends when you knew that you could get away without being confronted; it was a completely different thing when you knew that you would have admit to the actions you took with those friends looking at you.

Some people would call it bad luck if Peter was caught. Penny didn't agree. She would call it justice.

Harry had been the victim of bad luck before. Because, that was the source behind a lot of the events in his life. Out of all the children that Voldemort could have picked to try and kill, he had chosen Harry. That was definitely bad luck. His parents had died because they chose to trust the wrong person. Also, bad luck. But out of everything that had happened, Harry considered this to be the worst case of bad luck that he had ever experienced. Everything had been fine and then in a split of a second everything had gone wrong. They pointed out the full moon and professor Lupin became slack as his eyes seemed to soak in the view of the grand planet which were their only source of light. Sirius tried to get his attention when professor Snape woke up and pushed Draco. Pettigrew had smiled at Harry and then the teenager with the messy raven hair watched as the solution to Sirius problems turned into a rat and ran. The scene, he was sure, was burned into the inside of his mind and he would probably never forget it.

It felt like all he could think about was the fact that Pettigrew had gotten away and it felt like he stood there for at least a few minutes when he felt Draco thug at the sleeve of his arm. But in reality, it was probably no more than a few seconds between Harry watching Pettigrew run away to him suddenly looking into the eyes of Draco Malfoy.

"What do we do?"

 _What do we do?_ Such a logical yet complicated question. A question that Harry didn't have time to answer before something else happened which needed his attention. A loud whining sound caused him to look away from his friend and towards the struggle. Sirius – the man – was no longer in sight and a black dog had taken his place. A shiver went down Harry's spine when he realised that Sirius was the one who had whined and it was easy to understand why.

"Sirius." Harry called out his name without a second doubt and immediately wished that he hadn't.

The werewolf – Harry couldn't use Remus name or even his title as professor as he was sure that the man that his father was friends with had nothing to do with the actions of the wolf – looked away from Sirius at the sound of his voice and tilted his head slightly to the side. Harry wanted to believe that he was searching the inside of his mind for the information that was surely stacked somewhere in his subconscious. Hopefully, something would appear and he wouldn't attack them. Draco believed that the werewolf was trying to come up with the best and most efficient way of tearing them limb from limb.

Snape, whom Harry to a certain extent believed would run when the werewolf slowly began approaching, stood his ground with his arms stretched out in front of the two teenagers. But in spite of the experience that he had of fighting, the werewolf easily struck him and Snape dropped his wand to the ground. Snape sneered at the werewolf with the kind of intense hatred which Harry had only seen a few times before. That didn't seem to bother the werewolf whom towered over them and showed its sharp fangs and threatening claws. He raised one of his paws and struck Snape once more which resulted in him falling to the ground in front of the two boys. Harry had never ever had the time to think that maybe this was his last moment on earth. But he did then. He glanced towards the direction where Sirius had been tossed like he was nothing more than an annoying fly that the werewolf had wanted to get rid of. He wanted to follow his godfather. He wanted to make sure that he was okay but stood completely still; it felt almost as if he had lost all control of his limbs.

"Harry!" the sound of Penny's voice woke him from his momentarily paralysation and he glanced to the side just in time to see the woman appear by his side. Unlike Snape, there was no fear shining from her eyes nor hatred. "Hey Moony."

The werewolf looked at her and raised his nose to smell the air before he tilted his head to the side. Penny copied his movements and took a cautious step towards him. "I'm sorry that you're having a bad night my friend."

Harry felt Draco grab a hold of his arm as they watched Penny interact with the werewolf as if she had done it millions of times before. She spoke softly and in a way which could probably lure anyone into believing that she meant no harm. A story that Hermione had told about people who had the ability to charm-speak came to mind; they could convince people to act against their will. At least it was something along those lines, Harry couldn't remember the details. Recognition, or something which looked a lot like it, flashed across the werewolf's face and when Penny kneeled to sit on the ground he did the same. Harry looked over at Draco and could tell that hundred upon hundreds of questions floated around in his head but Penny spoke, without breaking eye-contact with the werewolf, first.

"Where's Sirius?"

Harry's throat had been dry before she asked but his throat became, if possible, even dryer after that. He licked his lips while looking between the two. "He turned into a dog, they fought… I think he's hurt."

Penny clenched her jaw. "Go find him then. But walk away slowly."

"What about Pettigrew?" Draco asked.

"Don't worry about that," Penny still didn't look at them. "It'll work out, trust me."

Harry could tell that his friend still had so many questions spinning around in his head and that he wanted to ask all of them but didn't. Harry couldn't blame him. That one sentence, which was supposed to be comforting, made him wonder how Penny had fixed the situation. How had she even known that Pettigrew had run away? After a moment of pondering, the two teenage boys looked at each other in silence, then they glanced at Snape, and without as much as uttering a word both boys walked towards the direction where they had last seen Sirius. Neither of them mentioned the feeling of cold that made the hair on their arms stand up in protest. Harry tried to ignore the thoughts that invaded his mind and reminded him of what had been "patrolling" the school for the entire year.

"SIRIUS!" Draco shouted with his hands cupped around his mouth.

Harry didn't know if he was trying to hide the distress in his voice but if he was then Draco was doing a poor job at that. Personally, Harry didn't trust his own voice to work and he settled for looking around him, hoping that he would catch a glimpse of his godfather. They had worked towards this moment for the entire year and if they would gain nothing other than the satisfaction of being right or the joy that came with meeting someone who knew his parents than that would be enough. But Sirius couldn't die.

Harry released a sigh of relief when he saw his godfather, albeit banged up, back in his human form and lying on his back by the lake. He thought about shouting when the cold became so intense, almost to the point where Harry wouldn't be surprised if the water turned into ice. Then they appeared. The dementors came floating from different directions and feelings of horror and sadness washed over the two boys. Neither he, nor Draco, thought for very long before hurrying down the hill. Pettigrew was long gone from their thoughts even if his escape meant that they wouldn't be able to prove that Sirius was innocent.

"What are we going to do?" Draco shouted as they ran, side by side, down the hill without much effort.

Harry gritted his teeth as he came to a halt next to Sirius and he raised his wand towards the creatures as they came closer to the boys. "We are going to get rid of these things once and for all. I am sick and tired of being reminded of my mother's death all the time."

Harry couldn't explain where the feelings came from. But in that moment, in spite of the dementors affecting him the way they did, he felt so angry at the world for allowing this to happen to him again. It almost became hard to hold onto his wand due to the way his hand kept shaking and the magic appeared to be out of control as the sparks of light went in different directions. He couldn't stop thinking about all the times in his life when things had gone wrong. Most of the time he hadn't been able to do anything to stop it. He had been a victim of circumstance. But not this time. Harry glanced down at the man in front of him and then at Draco who glared at the dementors while shouting the same spell as he did. Harry had lost people before. The difference was that he could do something about it this time. Maybe he and Draco would fail, maybe they couldn't prove that Sirius was innocent. Maybe he would be forced to go back to the Dursley's again. But in spite of that, Harry was going to make sure that Sirius was going to get out of this alive. As selfish as it sounded because Harry needed him to. Because the young teenage boy wanted to know someone whom had known his parents. He wanted something or someone that could resemble a real family. And he was going to use every drop of magic that existed inside of him in order to make that happen. He shouted the spell with a vigour that was unlike him and then, out of nowhere, blood ran down his nose and he only saw a flash of light before the world went dark.


	18. Old Scars: Part I

**Title** : Old Scars and Future Hearts

 **Word Count** : 3, 210

 **AN** : We're getting closer to the end people.

 **Chapter eighteen** : Old Scars, Part I

* * *

Dumbledore once told Harry that scars could be useful. The headmaster himself had a scar that resembled the London Underground. Those were the words that appeared in Harry's mind when he woke up; combined with the fact that the headmaster had been talking about physical scars. Even more specifically, he had been talking about the scar which decorated Harry's forehead. The young boy had questioned whether or not it would ever be useful to him and he was still questioning that fact. He had a hard time believing that the scar that he couldn't remove, ignore or forget would ever provide him with something good. That was the part that he hated the most. Harry could never forget it because it would always be there staring back at him whenever he glanced at himself in the mirror or any other reflective surface. He glanced at the boy who laid on the bed next to him. Draco's curly hair was spread across the pillow and his skin looked almost translucent. He, too, had scars but most of them weren't visible to the eye. Harry took a deep breath as he nestled into the many pillows that he had been given from Ron and Hermione. They knew how much he disliked the pillow that Madame Pomfrey had. They were uncomfortable and flat. He knew this because this wasn't his first trip to the Hospital Wing. He knew for a fact that it wasn't Draco's first time either but no one had come for him. The blond boy still had the same pillow which did very little to provide comfort or support.

"Has no one ever told you that it's scary to look at people when they're sleeping?"

Harry rolled his eyes at the sound of the snarky teenage boy whom had a teasing grin on his face when he opened those icy blue eyes. "No, because I wasn't staring. I was just watching."

Pain flashed across Draco's face as he forced himself to sit up in his bed but Harry pretended not to notice. He glanced down at his dirty nails which made him wonder what had happened after he blacked out. They were completely black from dirt, almost as if he had been digging with his hands for some reason that he didn't know about.

"You look terrible."

Harry rolled his eyes again before looking over at Draco. A part of the raven-haired teenager wanted to tell his friend that he didn't look much better. Because the teenager truly looked terrible. But unlike Harry it wasn't because of the physical scars; it was because of something else hidden just underneath the surface waiting to explode from him at any given moment. Harry knew what that was like. He knew what it felt like having to hide emotions from other people, to keep them bubbling just underneath the surface, and he knew how exhausting it was.

"Have your parents been here?"

This time Draco rolled his eyes. "That's funny Potter."

Harry nodded and partly looked away from the blond teenager for a short moment. When he looked back Draco were sitting with his hands clutched together so tightly that the knuckles turned white. Tiny scars that Harry had never seen before became visible but Draco didn't seem to care about them. Harry had questions on the tip of his tongue. He wanted to ask more about Lucius and Narcissa. He wanted to ask what this meant for Draco when school ended. But the words got stuck and for some reason he couldn't say them out loud, not yet.

"I didn't expect them to come after everything that I've done this year," Draco laughed but there was no happiness in the voice, it completely lacked emotions, just like the smile that appeared on his face. "I haven't actually told them but I've done everything other than that to show them I don't want their life anymore. I don't share their opinions anymore. I don't want to be a pawn in their games anymore."

Harry nodded and took a moment to take in the look of the blond boy that he had spent so long hating. He could still remember that day on the steps, in front of the castle, when Draco offered to show him who the right people were. Harry had turned him down because of that very thing. He didn't believe that people could be put into groups the way Draco did. At least not only by glancing at them. He didn't stop to wonder why Draco had done what he did. But then again, he was only eleven years old. Harry didn't take the time to look at the blue-eyed boy in front of him and wonder what had caused him to become the person that he was. But he knew that now and he realised that fighting against the powers that had caused him to turn out the way he had been was hard if not excruciatingly painful for the young teenager. Because he wasn't only leaving the beliefs that had shaped him; he was leaving the family that taught him that the world was based upon those believes. He was following his convictions and he was losing his entire world while doing it. Harry had never had to do that. That didn't mean that his life hadn't been difficult, because it had, but rather that there were different types of difficulties. Draco's had been overlooked for obvious reasons but Harry couldn't look away from them anymore.

"What are you going to do?"

So many words were left unspoken. So many questions which Draco still picked up and Harry could tell by the look on the blond boy's face when he tore his eyes away from his scarred hands. _Are you going to live with your parents? If not, where are you going to live? Are you staying at Hogwarts?_ Both boys knew that Draco's entire life had changed; the fact that his parents didn't show up when he was hurt was their way of showing that he wasn't a part of their family anymore. He shrugged and opened his mouth but no words came out; he didn't know what to say because he didn't know what he was going to do. He could feel a sharp pain in his chest, he imagined that's what it felt like being stabbed, and shrugged again as if trying to remove the blatantly obvious fact which was that he didn't know anything.

"Where's Sirius?"

Harry's emerald eyes widened as if he hadn't thought about Sirius until that moment. That had not been the case. His godfather had been in the back of his mind for the entire time but at the sight of Draco he had momentarily been pushed back in favour of Harry worrying about his friend. He pushed the covers aside and threw his legs over the edge of the bed. Draco was about to follow when the doors opened.

"Where are you going?" Hermione's curly brown hair was pushed back in a ponytail and there were wrinkles on her forehead.

Harry opened and closed his mouth several times while gesturing towards the door.

"We're going to see where Sirius is," Draco eventually spoke for his momentarily mute friend whom nodded. "We need to explain that he's innocent. They can't send him back to Azkaban."

"Oh yeah," Ron muttered as he followed Hermione towards Harry's bed. "And you think that they're going to listen to two teenagers over two teachers?"

"We have to try," Harry was about to push himself up from the bed when Hermione hurried across the room and gently but forcefully, by putting her hands on each shoulder, held him down. "Please, Hermione, this is important. You don't understand…"

"No," Hermione interrupted him and sat down on the bed next to him, still with her hands on his shoulders. "We don't understand. Because you've been lying to us the entire year and you promised me that you would tell me, us, what's been going on if we left you back there with _them_. So, tell me Harry."

Harry looked into her brown eyes. He could see that typical determination combined with something else that he couldn't name. Maybe it, whatever it was, had always been there or maybe it was something which had appeared in the last few months. Harry wouldn't be able to answer that but he knew that he liked that look in her eyes and he liked the fact that it appeared when she was looking at him. Harry could bat his eyelashes at her and try to tell her any lie which would get him out of telling her the truth. But he didn't want to. He glanced at Draco whom didn't look even the slightest bit surprised. It looked almost as if he knew what Harry was going to do before he knew himself.

"It started this summer when Draco came to see me," he glanced at Ron, somewhat expecting him to interrupt by stating how absurd that was or to ask what that had anything to do with them being so friendly. But he remained quiet. "He had found a diary by someone called Sirius Black and since he mentioned my dad, Draco figured that I would want it."

"So, you decided to prove that he was innocent?" Ron stated in a voice which clearly indicated that he either found the idea ridiculous or he didn't believe a word that his best friend was saying.

It was odd seeing them looking so unharmed. Normally, whenever Harry was injured something had happened to them too. Every time he had managed to end up in a dangerous situation they were right there next to him. Harry didn't know how he felt about the fact that they hadn't this time. There were no scratches on Ron's freckly face, no dried blood on wounds which had been taken care of by Madame Pomfrey; Hermione's hair was not messy, there were no dark rings underneath her eyes from worrying.

Harry and Draco shared a glance. One would have to be blind to miss the silent communication that they had learned over the months when they had collaborated with each other. Eventually, Harry shrugged and nodded. "Basically, yes."

Judging by the way Hermione looked at him, Harry could tell that she wasn't happy about the story that they had given. He couldn't blame her either. She was the kind of girl who believed that knowledge was the key to everything. When Hermione solved a problem, she used information to create a strategy in order to fix whatever problem that she was facing. When she was upset, she gathered all the information about the situation in order to figure out how she was supposed to act. This was not all the information. There were so much more that Harry could tell her. He could tell her that he _needed_ Sirius to be innocent. He could have told her about the fact that thanks to Draco he got more information about his family; and he could have told her that he needed to do this for himself. And he could have told her that there was a reason that he hadn't told her when they began looking for the truth. Harry was the most nervous about that. He ran his fingers through his hair, like Sirius had described that his dad often did, and then reached for Hermione's hands. The increasing redness on her cheeks and throat reminded him that there was something else that he needed to talk to her about but he pushed it into the back of his mind.

"You are one of my best friends Hermione. You are caring, kind and you do things because you believe that it's the right thing to do. That's why I didn't tell you. I knew that neither one of you would understand why I chose to believe Draco Malfoy out of all people when he told me that Sirius was innocent. You would have told someone and that would have ruined our plans," Harry watched as Hermione grasped the meaning of the words he told her. "Before you say anything, can you really look me in the eyes and tell me that you wouldn't have revealed what we were doing? Would you really have let me search for a convicted murderer who was out to get me because I believed that he was innocent?"

Hermione pursed her lips but didn't object. It felt as if time stood still while he waited for her to say something. Just like everyone else Hermione had scars. Harry knew that she had scars from the fights with Voldemort during their first and second year; he also knew that just like himself and Draco, she had emotional scars. Behind the wall of knowledge that she used to protect herself was a deep fear of being abandoned by those who she considered to be her friends. A sense of guilt grew inside of Harry as he realised that Hermione probably felt abandoned by him.

"And you became friends when you were working to prove that Sirius was innocent?" Ron asked as he looked between the two. Harry could feel the annoyance radiate from Draco as more time was lost talking when they could be doing something. "What did you think that you were going to gain from it?"

Again, the two boys looked at each other. Both had the sentences that could explain the reason behind their actions; they knew exactly what they thought they would gain from proving that Sirius was innocent. Draco didn't know what reason Harry had and vice versa. And neither was able to say the reasons out loud.

"It doesn't matter what we expect to gain or not," Draco hissed and glared at Ron. "We need to know where Sirius is right now."

Harry didn't think that they were going to answer his question. But to his surprise Hermione stood up while doing just that. Her melodic voice said a place where Harry had been plenty of times and then she offered him a hand to get up from the bed. Even after he stood up, Harry kept holding Hermione's hand.

"You're coming with us?" he asked with a hint of uncertainty that he never thought he would experience talking to Hermione.

The young girl nodded and moments later the four teenagers were walking down the corridors. Harry and Draco walked next to each other while Hermione and Ron walked behind them. They were a weird group and other students stopped to look at them when they walked by. Harry told himself that it was mostly because of their history and not because everyone knew the very personal story of what had happened which landed himself and Draco in the Hospital Wing. At the age of thirteen they had been the fiercest of enemies and the most brutal of rivals. The last thing that people expected to see walking through the corridors, as a unified group, were those four. Their history, their background was one filled with scars and nasty wounds. The fact that they could overcome their differences and everything that had happened proved that all kinds of scars and wounds could heal properly if given the right attention.

* * *

Draco was ready to fight anyone and everyone who dared stand in his way. So much had changed since he found the diary at 12 Grimmauld Place and he decided, at that point against his better judgement, that he was going to give the book to Harry. He had changed since then, everything about him, from the way he looked to the way he viewed the world. When he looked at Hermione he cared very little about whether or not her parents were magical or not. His parents were and they had pushed him away. The ability to make magic in the various ways that they could didn't necessarily mean that they were good people. That had taken him thirteen years to realise and he still hadn't gotten rid of his old ways. But Draco had gotten to the point where he was ready to fight for someone else with the risk of not gaining anything from it himself. He could feel the adrenaline rushing through his body as Harry pushed the door to Dumbledores office open and revealed the headmaster himself sitting behind his desk.

Dumbledore looked as he always did, annoyingly calm with that look on his face which made the four teenagers feel as if he had been expecting them for quite some time. There was no sight of Remus, Snape or Penny. But Sirius sat on a chair on the other side of the desk. At the sound of the door opening, the man in question had turned around and he smiled when he saw them. Draco couldn't help but smile back at him. There was something about Sirius Black which gave him hope for the future in spite of the fact that Draco had no idea what was going to happen once school ended.

"You need to release Sirius. He's innocent." Harry began with desperation in his voice while looking straight at Dumbledore.

Draco half expected something to explode or maybe something would move due to the fact that Harry wouldn't be able to keep the rush of magic inside of him. But nothing happened. Harry merely kept his fists clenched together in a firm grip.

Draco didn't let the old man think before he spoke with the same desperation and speed. "… It was Pettigrew who betrayed Harry's parents and killed those muggles. Sirius had nothing to do with it."

Dumbledore's hands were folded in front of him while he looked at the two boys. Draco could feel someone tapping on his shoulder but he merely shook it off and continued staring at Dumbledore with a viciousness and a stubbornness that reminded everyone of Harry. They were bound to have stolen some of the other persons traits after having spent so much time together. One of those traits included waiting for the worst to happen. So, both boys looked at Dumbledore and waited for him say something.

"I'm aware."

"We…" Harry became quiet and merely looked at the old man with hesitation.

Draco took a step back. His mind was blank and for once he couldn't figure out what that meant for him. Dumbledore laughed, Draco assumed at their stunned facial expressions. He glanced at Sirius whom looked relieved.

"How?"

"Well," Dumbledore shared a smile with Sirius. "Mr. Black, yourself and Mr. Malfoy were unconscious last night when Miss. Singh and Mr. Snape brought you back to the castle so you missed the part when Miss. Singh explained that it was in fact Mr. Pettigrew whom betrayed your parents and killed those muggles. He admitted everything under the influence of the Veritaserum last night. Mr. Black is officially a free man."

There was a moment of silence. Then Harry turned to look at Draco and without giving it a second thought Draco put his arms around Harry. "We did it."

"Yeah," Harry whispered back feeling a sense of warmth spread through his body as his heart beat quicker inside his chest. "We did."


	19. Old Scars: Part II

**Title** : Old Scars and Future Hearts

 **AN** : Random piece of information for you; (a) I started writing this fic exactly a year ago and (b) the flashback scene would take place between chapter 11 and chapter 12. Also, one more piece of interesting information… there is one chapter left!

 **Word Count** : 3, 256

 **Chapter nineteen** : Old Scars, Part II

* * *

Draco was suspicious. Harry had something planned and the blond teenager had no idea what that was exactly. It annoyed him while also shocking him and in the midst of wondering what Harry was telling Sirius and what he had told Hermione and Ron; Draco found himself thinking about how he had ended up in the situation that he was in. He couldn't make sense of it even if he knew exactly what had triggered this avalanche of events which had landed him in the Hospital Wing. It had all started with that diary. Or maybe it wasn't the diary? Maybe it all started when his mother took him to Grimmauld Place? No, Draco thought as he looked at Sirius whom sat in a chair next to Harry's bed, it had definitely started with the diary. That diary had described the world, and the life, of a pureblood child and teenager so well that Draco couldn't help but take the critique towards that world to heart. He saw the way the adults treated the children like goods that they could bargain with. Draco noticed that the love, he had believed were unconditioned, were in fact not. Both his parents had shown their dislike for the changes that he made in terms of his appearance. Then when that didn't make him change back, they tried to force him to change in various ways. That had failed too and now his parents didn't show up when he was injured.

"I expected you to look triumphant considering what you've done but instead I find you sulking."

Most thirteen-year olds would have found it embarrassing that the only person who visited were an eleven-year-old but Draco couldn't afford that luxury. Besides, it wasn't just any eleven-year-old person. It was Astoria Greengrass and she, according to Draco, was far smarter than most students in her year.

"I'm not sulking," Draco responded as the young girl sat down on his right side while still leaving the view clear for him to still keep an eye on Harry and Sirius if he wanted to. Astoria's blond hair was pushed back in a long, lose braid which ended just above her waist. Her brown, large eyes sparkled and her lips were pulled into a smile. "What are you doing here?"

Astoria swung her legs back and forth as she calmly rested her hands in her lap and tilted her head slightly to the side. Draco couldn't help but smile at the sight. It was so typical _Astoria_. She couldn't ignore the pureblood upbringing, as shown by the way her back was straight and by the way she positioned her hands, but at the same time it was clear that she was a child who couldn't sit entirely still.

Draco thought that he saw a flash of amusement on her face but it disappeared the very same second and he thought that he had just imagined it when she spoke with a happy tone of voice. "I come bearing news from the good old Slytherin Common Room and from your parents."

"My parents?" Draco scoffed when Astoria eagerly nodded. "What could they possibly have to tell me?"

"Believe me…" Astoria sighed deeply. "They had a lot to say about that letter that were sent to them."

"What letter?"

"Well, technically there were two letters," Astoria said without giving his question any attention. "I don't know which letter was the most shocking. My parent's and I have very different ideas of what is important to tell when sharing a good story to the rest of the pureblood community."

Draco was, if possible, even more confused and suspicious than he had been before. The moment Astoria sat down he saw movement behind him. Harry had torn his admiring gaze away from his godfather for only a moment or two to look at them. Just like Draco believed that he had imagined amusement flickering over Astoria's face, he believed that he had seen something looking like excitement in Harry's face. He couldn't for his life figure out why Astoria was there, or what letters she was talking about, nor could he understand why Harry would be excited about Astoria being there. He had seen them speak once a few weeks back and it hadn't been about anything significant. It had been about Marcus Flint and much to his own surprise, Harry and Astoria had ganged up against him.

* * *

"I don't want to talk about Marcus Flint." Draco said as he walked up and away from the cold hallways.

Astoria was right on his tail and the fact that he was taller and could take bigger steps didn't seem to bother her even the slightest. She didn't struggle what so ever with keeping up with him, much to Draco's obvious dismay. "Well, that's too bad because I want to talk about him. Why didn't you fight back? Why did you just stand there like some idiot?"

Draco laughed out loud. "Fight back? I was surrounded, Astoria, and the few people who weren't involved in the taunting didn't look too eager to step in and stop them."

Astoria sighed and muttered swear words under her breath and reminded Draco of the fact that she was two years younger than him. When he was eleven he rarely swore and during the few times that he did, Draco did so in a way which meant that no one else heard him. He could still remember the giddy feeling that arose inside of him when he insulted people under his breath. It was most often Harry that he insulted and for the few seconds that followed his well-chosen name-calling, Draco felt a little better. That feeling rarely lasted long though and when he saw Harry waiting for him outside of the Great Hall Draco couldn't help but feel that being friends with him was way better than being his enemy.

"If I can't get through your thick scull then maybe 'boy wonder' over there can get you to see reason."

Draco barely had the time to register Astoria's words before she had passed him by and were getting closer to Harry much faster than he was. She spoke his name and the raven-haired boy gave her a questioning glance. His arms were crossed over his chest and his glasses had slid a bit down his nose. Draco didn't hear everything that Astoria told him but apparently it was enough to get Harry's sympathy.

"… So, to summarise, Draco has a problem and I need you to tell him what to do about it."

Draco let out a low growl which didn't sound even nearly as threatening as he hoped that it would. "Don't listen to her. There's no issue. Astoria is just being dramatic."

He could feel his cheeks and neck go red as the eleven-year-old girl contradicted him once more and kept talking about the things that Marcus Flint and some other baboons had done since school had started. She told Harry about the time when Marcus pushed him into a wall and Draco bruised his entire side. At this, the blond boy couldn't help but grimace. It didn't sound that bad, being pushed into a wall, but it had been quite painful at the time and Draco's skin had changed into colours that he didn't know was possible. He wanted to tell Astoria to shut up, but the moment he opened his mouth Harry looked at him and Draco decided not to. He didn't know what it was or why he decided not to stop her from spilling everything that he had wanted to keep to himself; but he knew that there was something in Harry's eyes which made him wonder if maybe letting the truth be known was better than keeping everything a secret. When Astoria was finished, she looked at Draco as if expecting him to thank her. When he didn't, she muttered something about boys before turning back to Harry.

"I'm eleven so my ability to do something about this is quite restricted, but you can do something about all of this."

Harry nodded. To anyone else it looked as if Astoria had been talking to him about the weather and not the fact that the other students had made Draco's year into a living hell. At some point, it even dawned on him that Draco now knew how Luna Lovegood felt. But the blond boy himself, could tell that the words that Astoria had said hadn't just gone in through one ear and out the other. Harry had heard every single word and it almost looked as if he had made a mental note about everything that he didn't know before. The fact that he didn't look too shocked was something Draco was going to ask about later. But at the time he was too nervous. The blond boy had never gone to anyone with his problems. If he had a problem with another student then he would simply go to his father and have him sort the problem out. But he didn't have his father anymore, nor his mother, because of the way that he had acted that year. That also happened to be the reason that his supposed friends weren't treating him the way they used to. The only person Draco could ask for help was the person he used to call his biggest enemy and although they were friends now, there was still a part of him which questioned if he could ask Harry for help. He wanted to and he wanted Harry to be able to ask him for help if he needed it with anything other than Sirius. Those words were at the tip of his tongue at that very moment as they had so many times before. But he never said them. Friendship was a sore subject for Draco because he had never really had friends. It had just never dawned on him until one day when he read Sirius diary.

 _James said that we are best friends. I don't know why I'm writing that as if it's a surprise. I knew that in theory we were friends. He has defended me, he has helped me with school when I needed it he has been there for me when I needed someone to talk to. I have done the same for him. I knew that we were best friends because there are few people that I would do these things for as he says the same. James Potter and I are best friends. I think that I am having a hard time saying or understanding it because friendship doesn't exist in the pureblood world. At least not in the pureblood world where I grew up. There are only alliances which can be mutually broken, transformed or one can abandon alliances for new and better ones. But there is no friendship. One does not ask for help unless one can pay the person in question back in favours or money. One does not offer help unless one is sure that the person who needs help can give something in return. I know that friendship is not like that. I know that James doesn't expect me to give him anything in return and I don't help him because I felt forced or because I expect him to do something for me. I did and I still do it because I want to. Just like I want to help Remus and Peter whenever they need me. I know that they're all my friends and that it's nothing like relationships in the pureblood world. I know this and yet I still get nervous sometimes that I owe them something. I guess that my brain hasn't realised that being a part of the Marauders is nothing like being a part of the pureblood society._

Draco had read it and realised that Sirius described the way he viewed friendship before he started spending time with Harry. It was only because of the writing and because of Harry that Draco realised that his way of viewing it had been wrong; it was nothing more than a result of being brought up in a pureblood society where cunningness and manipulation was worth more than being loyal and friendly. He thought about that and almost missed Harry's response. The only one that the raven-haired boy could possibly give when someone told him about one of his friends needing his help.

"I'll fix it."

The moment those words left Harry's lips, Draco released a sigh of relief and when Harry smiled at him, comfortingly, he felt that he was one step closer to being able to say that they weren't enemies anymore or even allies; they were friends.

* * *

"Do you want me to tell you about the letter?" Astoria had waved in front of his eyes and managed to catch his attention. Draco was still a bit confused when he nodded and the blond girl in front of him smiled as if Christmas, her birthday and New Years Eve all took place at the same day. "According to my parents, Dobby came with the letter himself and proudly told them that he was a free elf and that he could say whatever he wanted to Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy because Mr. Potter had told him that he could…"

At this Draco laughed wholeheartedly and he almost felt like finding the elf to apologise for everything that he had been forced to endure during his years with the family.

"The actual letter said that they were an abomination for the entire human race and that they made the ultimate mistake when they didn't show up at the Hospital Wing after you got hurt. They were also told that they would have to go through serious personality changes before being allowed to see you again. Or else Harry, otherwise known as the boy who lived, and Sirius Black, recently freed convict, will find a way to make their lives miserable."

Draco remained silent. A part of him wondered what this meant. Where would be go now? There was always a chance before today that he could live with his parents, so that they could avoid a scandal, and then move out once school ended. But that was obviously not going to happen now. He glanced over at Harry; both him and Sirius looked back at him. But neither spoke, instead Astoria continued with a much softer voice and Draco didn't have to force himself to focus on her.

"Marcus Flint and the rest of his baboons were told something a little differently. They were given vivid descriptions of what would happen to them unless they left you alone."

Draco put his hands over his eyes so that no light could shine through. He laughed several times but even to his ears the sound was out of place and wrong. His parents had been removed out of his life and he had been defended by no other than Harry James Potter. This year had been nothing other than utterly mad and yet Draco could honestly tell that it had been the best year ever. Even if he didn't know what was going to happen now. He heard the steps, two pair of shoes, approaching and then the sound of screeching chairs. When he removed his hands Sirius and Harry sat on either side of his bed; Astoria was no longer in the room.

"Asshole," Draco said and laughed again. "What makes you think that writing a letter is going to help? Does Marcus Flint even know how to read? And the letter to my parents… Sweet Merlin…"

Harry shrugged as he mischievous smile grew. "It may not have been a letter. In fact, it wasn't a letter. It was a howler and I'm pretty sure that he will stay away from you. Like Astoria said, there were some colourful and vivid threats on that howler so there's no way he could have misinterpreted what would happen if he didn't. Besides, we have a very talented formerly convicted felon on our side."

Draco laughed again and then looked at Sirius. The man in question was skinny but clean, the dark brown hair was pushed back away from his grey eyes and fell gracefully around his head. Words were trying to form sentences in Draco's head but the moment he thought about saying them out loud they sounded stupid. He couldn't believe that he was in front of the man who had written the diary, the source of everything, and the only person he knew who had left the pureblood world for something else. This was the person whom had changed the way Draco viewed the world and everything inside of it. The blond boy lifted his hand towards Sirius.

"Draco Malfoy."

The moment he said his name Draco wanted to vomit but to his satisfaction Sirius took his hand. "Nice to officially meet you, I'm Sirius Black. Thanks for proving that I was innocent."

Draco laughed and scratched the back of his head. "Thank you for writing that diary. It changed the way I view everything and even if I'm not homeless it was totally worth it. At least I'm my own person now."

Sirius eyes glimmered. "Homeless? You're not homeless kid. You're coming with me… with us."

"What?" Draco looked between the two with his eyes wide open and his mouth pretty much hanging down to his lap. "What do you mean I'm coming with you?"

"You're really thick sometimes mate," Harry said as he leaned forward and patted Draco's shoulder. "You may not understand the concept of friendship very good yet but let me explain it to you. Friendship means that you take care of people when they need you. I can't with good consciousness let you go back to your parents so I made sure that you never had to and now I'm offering you a place to live. Because we're friends… fuck that, we're best friends, I care about you and I want to help you."

Draco didn't know what to say. He had a whirlwind of emotions running through his body but he couldn't transform any of them into words. He sniffled and laughed before replying with a somewhat snarky voice. "Typical Gryffindor's, you're always so emotional."

Sirius laughed louder than Harry did. "That was a typical Black response if I ever heard one. You remind me of someone, kid."

His smile faltered a little.

"Who?" Draco asked.

"My little brother," Sirius answered softly with a tone of voice that had both teenagers wanting to ask more about him but somehow, they managed to stop themselves. "He was the golden boy, he did everything our parents wanted him to and just like you he could never ask for help. He didn't think that he could be helped, he thought that old scars could never heal."

"Can they?" Draco asked with a trembling voice.

Harry nodded and answered without hesitation. "Of course, they can, as long as you have great friends by your side to help."

If Draco had been told at the end of the second year that he would feel complete with Harry Potter by his side and a formerly, wrongfully convicted felon then he would have laughed out loud. But as the three men sat there and eventually began discussing where they were going to live, Draco couldn't help but think that it couldn't get any better than this. And it was all because of that stupid diary.


	20. Future Hearts

**Title** : Old Scars and Future Hearts

 **AN** : Here we are, the final chapter of _Old Scars and Future Hearts_. This is longer than most other chapters. It took me a year and a few days but it is officially finished and I could not have done it without your support. I did not expect to get any attention for this fic and I was fine with that because I just wanted to take this idea from start to finish. So, I am amazed and truly grateful that so many have favourited / followed / reviewed. It truly means a lot. I'm also amazed that I managed to finish it. It didn't at all turn out how I thought it would but I'm so happy. For those of who you aren't happy that I didn't focus on the pairings that I mentioned in the beginning, I may write a sequel. But I need to finish my other multi-chapter stories first. Anyway, I'm going to stop rambling, thanks so much for following me on this journey. It really means a lot. A special thanks to you Penny for being so supportive, kind and for spreading the word about the fic! I wouldn't have finished this story if it wasn't for your encouragement. You're a nugget of gold, a real-life book character and I'm honoured to call you my friend.

 **Word Count** : 4, 364

 **Chapter twenty** : Future Hearts

* * *

 _James told me something today. It was so clever and yet so complicated to understand. He told me that a lot can change in a year. At first, I laughed at him because it was obvious that he was right. I told him that he wasn't a genius for stating something obvious. But then he told me to actually think about it and what that meant for the people I love or for myself. Spontaneously, I thought about our friendship. If someone would have told me a year ago that I would find not one best friend but three then I wouldn't believe them. But here I am._

Harry knew that a lot could change in a year. It had happened more than he could count. More often than not, the changes had happened so much faster than that. One moment in time had taken his parents away from him. That change hadn't taken more than a few seconds. The same amount of time had changed his life for the better when he found out that the man who was meant to take care of him was innocent of the crime that he had been found guilty for and could after that take care of him for real. There were a lot of moments he thought about which had changed his world and turned it upside down. But the moment that he couldn't stop thinking about was the moment when he found out that Hermione Granger didn't think of him as only a friend.

Almost as if she could read his thoughts, Hermione looked away from Draco to face him. He was leaned back with his arms crossed over his chest and when their eyes met he couldn't help but tilt his head to the side. There was a slight blush on her cheeks and then she looked away but she was still aware of the fact that he was looking at her. Harry could feel his heart beat a little bit quicker. There was something about her smile. He wondered if he had just noticed that or if he had always known. He also couldn't help but wonder if he had always felt differently about her than others or if he had realised after a year of not seeing her as often as he used to? He didn't know the answers to those questions. But then again, maybe it didn't matter what the answers were. All he knew was that something had changed between them at some point during the year that had gone by and Harry was happy about that change whenever or however it had occurred.

"Why are you looking at each other like that?" Ron asked and forced Harry to tear his attention away from Hermione. Their redheaded best friend looked utterly confused while the blond teenager on Harry's right side merely shook his head while amusement flickered across his face.

Hermione shrugged. "We're not looking at each other differently. But now that you're paying attention to something other than your food, what did you say about Dumbledore and looking weird this morning?"

It was surprisingly easy to get Ron to think about something else. When their headmaster was mentioned he nodded as if being reminded and wasted no time to change the subject. "I was wondering if you know why he looked so weird this morning?"

"Was that it?" Draco asked with a slightly snarky tone in his voice and Harry bumped his shoulder. The fact that he had abandoned his parents and realised that they had been wrong about everything they thought him didn't mean that he all of the sudden liked Ron.

No, Draco still thought that the redheaded teenager had very little manners to go with his lack of braincells, charm and overall ability to be funny. Even if he no longer insulted the boy out loud, or even by muttering quietly to himself, Draco still thought about what he could have said if it wasn't for Harry.

"Yes," Harry said and broke the tension which had slowly built up between the two still semi-rivals. "Well, us, Sirius and Penny. Mostly Sirius and Penny."

"Mostly Penny…" Draco added with a smile on his face.

Harry shrugged. "I'd say mostly you."

* * *

Dumbledore's office had surely seen its fair share of awkward scenes and weird combinations of people over the years. But Harry was willing to bet money that the tension had never been quite this thick before. The saying, that one could cut through the tension with a knife wasn't strong enough to describe the feeling of discomfort and straight hostility which seemed to fill the entire room without much effort.

"Miss. Singh, would you like to have a seat?"

Harry, Draco and Sirius all sat down in front of Dumbledore's desk but Penny had opted for standing even if there was an empty chair for her next to Sirius. She squinted her eyes at the headmaster as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing. There was no denying the hostility which radiated from her entire body towards the person she clearly felt was responsible for everything that had gone wrong the past few years. Harry could, out of the corner of his eye, see Sirius smiling since he was doing a bad attempt at hiding his smile behind his hand.

"I'm fine where I am, thank you," Penny replied as she took a step forward and put one hand on each of Sirius shoulders. "This meeting shouldn't take long."

There was a challenging tone in the last sentence but if Dumbledore heard it then he decided not to take the bait. He looked at Harry instead. His fingers were intervened and his head slightly tilted forward so that his eyes were no longer hidden behind his glasses. Draco looked as amused as Sirius but without making any effort what so ever to hide his feelings. That was partially the reason why Harry struggled to do the same. No one could describe the situation as fun but it could be described as strange. Both teenage boys were sure that Dumbledore had never been told that something was going to happen instead of being asked. Because that is what had happened. Sirius hadn't _asked_ if Harry and Draco could live with him; Sirius had _told_ Dumbledore that they were going to live with him. That had brought on the silence which neither of the two teenagers had wanted to break. And when Dumbledore eventually broke it, he did so to ask Penny if she wanted to sit down. The short dialogue had made the situation weirder. Harry was on the verge of asking if the old man had heard what Sirius said when he opened his mouth.

"I'm not sure that this is a good idea." He spoke with the same calmness as ever.

Harry could feel the anger burning inside of him, not uncontrollable like a wildfire but a burning never the less. He rolled his eyes.

"That doesn't matter, Professor, that doesn't matter one bit," Sirius sounded as calm, if not calmer than Dumbledore, but they didn't sound the same. "When Harry was born his parents decided that he would go into my care if anything happened to them. Thanks to some unfortunate events I have been unable to take care of him before but that problem has been solved now."

Harry saw movement out of the corner of his eye and when he turned around he looked into the fierce face of Penny. She looked at Dumbledore as if she was asking him to contradict Sirius, to argue against him letting Harry move in with him. Just like Harry could see when the wheels were turning around in Hermione's head, he could see that Penny had some well-chosen words on the tip of her tongue which she couldn't wait to attack Dumbledore with. But she didn't and wouldn't unless he gave her a reason to. Harry had learned quickly that she was fierce but she wasn't argumentative for nothing.

"Mr. Black, I'm sure that you want what's best for Mr. Potter so surely you can see that the best thing for him would be to let him go back to the Dursleys."

Everyone expected Harry to respond but he wasn't the one who laughed out loud. It was Draco. The blond teenager held his hands over his stomach as he looked between Dumbledore and Harry and were, for a moment, only able to wheeze out random words. Only Harry could tell that he was overdoing it and that he didn't find the comments funny what so ever.

"That's funny Dumbledore," he said after having laughed for a few minutes. He pretended to remove tears from the corners of his eyes. "Obviously, you've never met the Dursleys before. I can't say that I've met a lot of muggles but they have got to be the worst muggles in the country. If nothing else, amongst the worst people ever."

"And you would know that how, Mr. Malfoy?"

"Because I went there once last summer," Draco responded without any emotions in his face. "And let me tell you, they treated Harry about as well as my parents treat me. You probably didn't know and you probably didn't care but that means not very good. So, you better think very hard and long about what you say next old man because it's going to require some seriously good arguments for me to even consider going back to my parents or for me to let you send Harry back to those horrible creatures."

Harry had never seen Dumbledore looked shocked and he wasn't sure that the old man knew how to make the facial expression to match the emotions that went on inside his body. But he assumed that the expression on his face at that moment was the closest he could get to being shocked. Sirius looked as if he was ready to walk over and pat Draco on the back but somehow managed to keep himself from doing so. Penny had a smile on her face which went away when Dumbledore looked at her. The headmaster looked as if he realised that there was no battle for him to fight. He couldn't smooth things over and he couldn't convince anyone to do what he wanted. Because they weren't fighting him, they were merely informing him about what was going to happen once the two teenagers left school and there was nothing he could do to stop it from happening.

"I guess that there is nothing more to be said." Dumbledore eventually said as he looked between the four people.

Penny scoffed. "A lot can me said, professor. I have a lot to say about the way that you have been acting for the past years but if I were to talk about everything that you have done wrong then we'd be here all night and quite frankly I don't wish to stay in this office that long. But what I can say is that you have hurt these people so much. You have hurt children, teenagers, adults and you keep hurting them today because of your horrible decisions. I can't stop you from making bad decisions but I can stop you from affecting these people in this room any further and I will do anything to protect them from you. That means that if you even think about doing anything to them I will stop you. Is that understood?"

Harry and Draco shared a glance as they waited for Dumbledore to rise and say something to show how much he disliked what Penny had just said. But the old man didn't say anything and it was hard to say why. But no one felt like questioning it.

"Thank you for seeing us, professor." Sirius said as he got up from his chair. "We'll be going now."

Draco and Harry remained seated in their chairs. Harry mostly because of the fact that Dumbledore was looking at him in a way which made the raven-haired teenager wonder if he was going to say something. He could tell, judging by the way Draco didn't take his eyes from the headmaster that the blond young man thought the very same thing.

"Do you have anything you wish to add, Harry?"

There was a lot of things that he could add to the things that had already been said. Harry could tell Dumbledore more about what it had been like living with the Dursleys and he could have told him about the relief which took over his entire body when he was told by Sirius that he wouldn't have to go back there. But there was no reason for him to say those words. He didn't have to tell the old man about the scars, both physical and physiological, that living with the Dursleys had resulted in. Harry couldn't help but wonder if Dumbledore knew or if telling him would make the headmaster feel bad about what he had done. Harry doubted it. One the one hand he wanted to give the old man the benefit of a doubt but on the other hand he found it hard that the all-knowing man who sat in front of him had no idea about what was going on inside the four walls of Private Drive. So, Harry tilted his head to the side and shrugged.

"Just that I'm excited to see my new home, sir."

* * *

Ron nodded while letting out a deep breath. "Yeah, that explains it. I'm pretty sure that not getting his will through is a new experience for Dumbledore."

Harry couldn't argue with that fact. Penny had confirmed his and Draco's suspicious when her and Sirius had said that they were going to get everything settled. It was interesting to think about what that meant in practice. Because among other things, that meant that they would be going to see the Dursleys. Harry partially wanted to be there for that meeting just like Draco had partially wanted to be there when they went to see his parents. He couldn't imagine what Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy would do when Penny and Sirius made themselves known in the Malfoy manor. He was usually not the person to let his imagination run freely but it was hard not to considering everything that could happen.

"Maybe that was a good thing," Hermione said with a shrug. "I think that most new experiences are."

Harry could hear Draco scoff as Hermione looked over at him with a small smile playing on her face. Ron was the only one who appeared to be completely unaware of the signs. Or maybe he saw them but didn't think that they meant anything. Harry was unsure of what to think. Ron was a lot of things and occasionally that meant that he wasn't the most observant person in the entire world.

"Either way," Draco said and efficiently earned their attention. "It was a good day."

Harry could only agree. But his reason for thinking that it was a good idea wasn't entirely the same as Draco's. The biggest reason, of course, was that he could finally leave the Dursleys and live with someone who actually cared about his well-being. The other reason made him subconsciously smile and there was nothing he could do to stop himself.

* * *

Harry sat alone in the couch in the Common Room, fidgeting with his fingers, on the day before it was time to go home. Normally, he would be feeling rubbish at the thought of going back to the Dursleys. Because he knew that he would be forced to deal with months of endless hostility and insults. No one could think badly of him for not looking forward to that. But for the first time, Harry didn't feel worried. Because he wasn't going home to the Dursleys. He was going somewhere else and even if he didn't know exactly where that was, Harry felt a certain calm and relief spread through his body.

"Are you still here?"

Hermione stood at the top of the stairs with one hand resting on the railing. In that moment, it was obvious that she looked at him differently than she did Ron and Harry almost wanted to hit himself for not having realised it before.

"Yeah," he said with his body slightly twisted so that he could see her walking down the stairs. "I wanted to talk to you before we went down for dinner."

Hermione hummed. "About what?"

Harry had faced one of the darkest wizards to have walked the earth. He had faced more dementors than he could count and every summer he spent with three people, whom were supposed to be his family, that hated him actively. Neither of those things made him nervous. He disliked all of them but none of them made his heart beat faster the way it did in that very moment when Hermione sat down in front of him on the couch. He had every word on the tip of his tongue, now all he had to do was say them to her.

"I like you," Harry, like every other teenager, had watched movies. Every declaration between people that they felt more towards someone than friendship was done with comparisons that his thirteen-year-old brain could not come up with; they all expressed feelings that his thirteen-year-old heart had never experienced before. So, Harry, being a thirteen-year-old boy couldn't say what he had seen so many others say. All he could tell Hermione was the very thing that he had been avoiding telling her the entire year and that was the truth. And the truth was that he liked Hermione. "I don't like you as I like Ron and Draco. They're my best friends. I like you in a different way and that may not be what you want me to say but I don't know what else to tell you."

Due to having been Hermione's best friend for three years, Harry believed that he had seen every one of her smiles; he believed that he had heard every laughter or sound that she could make. But he had never seen the smile that erupted on her face before. There was a certain spark in her brown eyes which Harry couldn't describe and the smile looked more genuine and heartfelt than any other smile he had ever seen. Everything about Hermione Granger, in that moment, was indescribable as was the feelings that ran through his body at the realisation that he had only ever seen her look like that at him. Harry couldn't help but feel special.

"That's perfect," Hermione replied as she leaned forward and rested her hands against each of his shoulder. She gently leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "Thanks for telling me the truth, Harry."

* * *

"Speaking of good days," Hermione said and pointed at Draco. For some reason, those two had gotten along easier than Draco did with Ron. When Harry asked the blond teenager about it he merely rolled his eyes and said that she could hold an intelligent conversation and didn't eat as if she had never seen food before in her life. "Snape did not have a good day today."

Draco couldn't help but smile at the thought. It didn't take much to ruin Snape's days but that didn't make it any less rewarding.

* * *

 _James always says that a lot can happen in a year This isn't the first time that I have written this but I needed to write about it again. I have learned that, and so many other things, during my time at Hogwarts so far. It's a very comforting thought to have considering what we're facing. Right now, the world is not a beautiful place. Well, it's not only a beautiful place. There are people out in the world who wants to hurt others for being different from them and the idea that a lot can change is a truly optimistic one. Because that means that in a year, this battle could be over and the world could be a nice place again. I seriously doubt it but it's not totally impossible. After all, a lot can change in a year._

Draco thought about that very passage from the diary during the train ride back to London. A smile graced his face as he partially leaned his back against the window to get a better view of the compartment. He hadn't cut his blond hair in a year and his blond locks reached to his shoulders where they gracefully hung without getting in the way of his eyes or his mouth. He had gained weight since starting school and didn't look as scrawny as he had in the beginning of the year. Snape had looked at him as if he had grown an extra head when he came into the Great Hall wearing a leather jacket, torn up jeans and a pair of black combat boots to breakfast. He had been in a conversation with McGonagall, probably about Harry as the teen in question sat by the table with one teacher on each side. When Snape had seen Draco, he stopped talking and his mouth fell open as if he hadn't seen the leather jacket before. He probably hadn't either. A lot could be said about Snape, one of those things were that the man wasn't very observant on what went on amongst the Slytherin-students.

"Mr. Malfoy, what…" Draco shared a smile, and winked at Harry, before focusing on his teacher who looked as if he was struggling to come up with the next word in the sentence. "… do you think you're doing?"

"Eating breakfast, Professor." Draco replied easily, as if he had never been asked a more stupid question before, and with one of his eyebrows slightly raised and the ghost of an amused smile on his face.

Snape took his time before answering. Draco was used to waiting for his teacher to find the words. He knew that it wasn't because Snape was stupid, it was merely the way he spoke, but every time the teacher spoke Draco couldn't help but think that it took a very long time for him to find the right words for whatever he wanted to say. "Are you aware of the fact that this is the wrong table?"

The blond teenager thought about playing surprised about where he had ended up but decided against it. He wasn't in the mood for making fun of his teacher even if Sirius had set an amusing example the night before. "I wasn't aware that it was against to rule to sit at another table."

"It's not, Mr. Malfoy," McGonagall replied before Snape had even managed to form the words in his head. Her voice sounded almost giddy and Draco couldn't help but think that it was because of the fact that someone from Slytherin wanted to sit with the Gryffindor's instead of with the rest of his house. She glanced at Snape with that just barely hidden smugness which only came out when Gryffindor won a quidditch game against Slytherin. "Let the poor boy eat his breakfast."

Draco didn't know what was going to happen in the moment that followed. He knew that it was illegal to hit students but a part of him almost suspected that Snape was going to hit him anyway. There was a flash of badly suppressed anger in his eyes which reminded the blond teenager of his father. But unlike Snape, Lucius would have said something or done something. Snape didn't. He only scoffed at the scene that had unfolded, as if he was struggling to come to terms with what had actually happened, and then he turned around with his cloak dramatically sweeping behind him. McGonagall winked at Draco who sat down next to the empty spot next to Harry. His raven-coloured hair was messy, as per always, and there was an amused smile on his face.

"You look better." Harry commented while pushing his glasses closer to his emerald eyes.

Draco shrugged as he reached for an egg and some bread. "I always look good, Potter. But thank you."

He saw Hermione Granger, sitting on the opposite side of the two, with a calm yet confused smile on her face. Her curly brown hair, a completely different type of curls than his own, was pushed back in a loose braid to keep it out of her face. She hadn't managed to get all of it to stick and strands had gotten loose. Draco wouldn't claim that he knew her very well but he did notice that there was something different about the way she smiled this morning.

"I am never going to get used to the two of you being friends." She said while shaking her head.

Harry looked at her while reaching for his third piece of toast. He was going to take two but looked as if he remembered something and opted for only one more. "You will definitely get used to it and so will the rest of the school. They have no other choice."

* * *

The group of teenagers laughed with each other instead of laughing at someone and Harry nudged Draco and spoke in a tone so that only Draco could hear him. "Pretty good start on the summer holiday, right?"

"A shocking one," Draco replied with a smile. "But yeah, pretty damn good."

If anyone would have told Draco when he found that diary that he would find himself sitting in the same compartment on the train as Harry, Ron and Hermione then he would have laughed in their faces. Harry would have told the person in question that he had never heard anything as ridiculous before. And who could blame them? After two years of fighting each other they had both left scars on the other, scars that other people and they included never thought would be able to heal. But by chance, or maybe it was destiny, life had given them the chance in the form of a diary to heal the old scars and mend their hearts for the future.

 **The end**


End file.
